We will help you find the best possible mattress to suit your needs at the best possible price. We do this by providing honest and accurate mattress reviews, buying guides, tips and articles that will cover all the leading mattress manufacturers such as King Koil, Jamison, Sealy, Simmons and many more….

You can spend as little as $100 to as much as $3,000 on a leading brand memory foam mattress, and although this website is called ‘Cheap Mattress Reviews’, we review mattresses in every price range – this site is all about buying a mattress at the cheapest price possible.

While we can help you with information, unfortunately we can’t accompany you to the store when you go to make your purchase. You will need to do a little work yourself, so have a read through some of our reviews of Latex mattresses, memory foam mattresses, pillowtop mattresses, Kingsdown mattresses or any of the cheap mattresses we cover to get an understanding of what to look out for.

Best mattress – How to choose the right one?

There is only one factor to consider when choosing a new mattress, and that is comfort. Whatever style or type of mattress you finally decide on, you should only be guided by how comfortable it is for you to sleep on…….Sure, price is always an issue, but it should never come before comfort.

To decide though, you first need to determine what features are most relevant to your needs. If you suffer from chronic back pain for example, an orthopedic mattress might be the best choice for you. If you are larger than the average build, a king size or California king mattress might a better option.

Personally I suffer from intermittent back problems that are sometimes worse when I wake up in the morning, what solved the problem for me was to buy a medium firm inner-sprung mattress with a high coil count. Within a week of buying my new mattress, my occasional back aches had disappeared for good.

What are the best mattress brands?

We are asked this question all the time, and it really depends on your own personal circumstances. You could argue that the Vividus mattress by Hastens is the finest mattress available, but costing in the region of $50,000 (no that’s not a typo 🙂 ), it is well outside the range of 99% of the population……so we can hardly provide a cheap mattress review on that model!

Most of the leading manufacturers have ranges to suit most budgets, and they all have good points and bad. One of our aims with this site is to provide you with honest feedback on each of the best mattress reviews we bring you, and we promise to give you the good and bad about each model we review.

So unfortunately, without knowing you all personally, it is impossible to say what the best mattress is going to be, because there is a good chance that will be different for each and every one of you.

What are the best mattress types?

To make the right choice, you first need to start by understanding the different types of mattresses that are made.

The following is not a definitive list with all the features of every mattress, but is designed to help the newcomer to mattress-buying be less confused about all of the options he or she has when it comes to types of mattresses.

When shopping it is useful to compare mattress types across a broad range of characteristics, not just price, so this should help you “home in” on a suitable type of mattress for you….

Innerspring Mattresses

Innerspring mattresses are still the most common type of mattress in the US, but there are many variations within the broad spectrum of inner-springs or inner-coils.

The basic set up with an inner-spring is a spring core, a comfort or upholstery later and a foundation.

The spring core nowadays normally includes steel coils which vary in strength and gauge, which will affect the support they offer to the mattress. They will also vary in density – a queen size mattress with 300 coils is going to feel significantly different to one with 2000 coils, no matter how they are arranged.

Another common variation is the arrangement of the coils. Often they are connected or “continuous”, which helps the mattress bind together and keep its shape, but pocket-springs are also more common these days, where the springs work independently and control motion transfer well, with fabric encasements that help the mattress keep its shape.

Coils have been used in mattresses since the late 1800′s and many of the leading US manufacturers started out producing inner-coil mattresses as a lead-on from cotton-filled mattresses.

The oldest and cheapest type of coil is the “Bonnell coil” or “open coil”, which is hourglass shaped and is still used in the lower-end mattresses today.

“Marshall coils”, which you will find in the Simmons BeautyRest for example, are individually wrapped in fabric encasements, and may have other metals added or may be pre-compressed for added strength.

You may also see “offset coils”, “mira coils” or “continuous coils” mentioned, which work with a hinging effect – these are used by Serta amongst others and have a reputation for being very supportive but noisier than other types.

To sum up you will find many variations on the inner-spring mattress from all the leading manufacturers and many smaller ones too. Often nowadays the inners-spring design will be blended with more and more advanced materials in the comfort, upholstery layers, like memory foam and latex, giving you the best of both worlds.

Foam Mattresses

Foam mattresses have been used for many decades, originally as a cheaper alternative to innerspring mattresses.

The technology has advanced considerably into expensive, high quality, shape-conforming foams like memory foam (see below) but you still get some manufacturers producing value-for-money foam mattresses.

Ikea, for example, make very price-competitive mattresses in their Sultan range which use standard

Polyurethane foam at 1.4 lb or 1.5 lb per cu.ft with Polyester and viscose wadding. This is low-density, no frills foam that is designed to produce a low cost, basic sleep surface.

Another mattress in the same range uses higher density polyurethane foam at 2.2 lb/cu.ft., mixed with the 1.5 lb/cu.ft foam. This is a slightly higher quality foam, but still low price compared to the more advanced foams you will read about in the following passages.

Visco Elastic or “Memory Foam” Mattresses

In 1992 Tempurpedic introduced the first visco-elastic memory foam mattress into the US. After many years developing the foam that NASA used for its great cushioning and temperature-response effects with its astronauts during take-off, and adjusting production methods to make it viable for use in bedding, it was a breakthrough.

Since then there has been a steady trend for memory foam to be used more and more. Originally it wasn’t priced within everybody’s means – a queen size Tempurpedic HD mattress can still cost over $7000 – but nowadays different production methods and use of chemicals to add to the basic polyurethane produces “visco elastic” materials or “memory foams” of vastly differing qualities – meaning you will see a wide range of variant prices for mattresses that essentially look the same.

The thing with memory foam mattresses is to read the labels and check composition, memory foam density and ILD ratings. The density or weight of the memory foam can tell you a lot – it is measured in pounds per square foot and a good yardstick to use is Tempurpedic, whose foam measures well over 5 lb/ sq.ft. Some densities are around the 2 or 3 mark and these will be lower quality.

The ILD rating tells you how hard or soft the material is …the higher the ILD, the firmer the foam and you will usually see ratings between 6 and 16.

Another thing that can vary greatly with memory foam is the cell structure – this affects air flow around the mattress, with a closed cell structure preventing adequate breath-ability in many cases.

Also check a mattress for how much memory foam is used. Anything less than 2 inches is not much of an advantage, while over-thick use of memory foam layers can make the mattress too soft as well as expensive. A balance is necessary.

Latex Mattresses

Latex is often considered to be a recent addition to the bedding market but in actual fact Dunlop created the first latex foam in 1926 and British mattress manufacturers have been including it in mattresses since then.

The Dunlop method of making latex foam, which took the natural rubber, whipped it up into a froth and heated it, to produce a dense natural foam, was diversified in the 1940′s to produce Talalay latex. This added a couple of steps to the process, including treating it in a vacuum and freezing it, as well as the addition of some chemicals like ammonia, producing a springier and slightly softer foam that was a combination of the natural and the man-made.

Nowadays most of the leading manufacturers in the US include latex as a comfort material in the upholstery layers of their finest mattresses. They are usually the most expensive in the range and if you come across a latex mattress that is cheap you should probably ask the question “why?” You will probably find that Talalay latex is a bit more expensive that Dunlop.

Waterbed Mattresses

Waterbed mattresses were popularized in the 1970′s but, like most things 70s-based, they have experienced re-births. The features that attract people to them are mainly that they can be heated, which is a great advantage in the colder climates, and the fact that well-made waterbeds can be extremely comfortable because water takes the body shape completely and creates little pressure on the body. In addition to this the water provides a dust-mite and allergen-free “filling” to the mattress so they are good for people with allergies.

There are two basic types of waterbeds: soft-sided, which includes a water-containing mattress inside a foam frame and sitting on a platform; and hard-sided where the mattress usually sits within a wooden frame on a plywood deck. The latter type is usually cheaper.

Nowadays the designs of waterbeds have been improved and the single-chamber waterbed, where every slight movement in bed creates a wave to your sleeping partner, has been superseded by beds that control motion transfer very well, using either fiber batting, interconnected water chambers or a combination of air and water chambers.

Futon Mattresses

Often considered the domain of the student and apartment dweller, the futon is still alive and well in furniture and sleep land! Popularized during the 1960′s and 1970′s in the US, they were seen as a versatile and cheap alternative to the standard inner-spring mattress sets.

They are versatile because many futons have a frame that can be collapsed to form a bed frame or raised to make a sofa or chair frame. It doubles up the uses, which is great for someone who lives in an apartment, without a spare room for guests. It means their visitors have a place to sleep without it taking up any more space.

Futon mattresses will usually be sold with a recommended frame, but can be bought separately. They will usually be filled with cotton and batting and will be available in most of the standard sizes, with many choices of removable cover, from colorful cotton designs to vinyl or leather-look.

Air Mattresses

Air mattresses are a great alternative to a standard mattress if you are looking for somewhere for the kids’ friends to sleep during a sleepover, somewhere for guests to sleep on if you don’t have a spare room, something to take camping or even a mattress for the main bedroom if you don’t want a traditional innerspring or foam mattress.

The old PVC air mattress of the 1970′s, which resembled a body-size float for use in a swimming pool, is still available today and is very cheap, but there are far more advanced air mattresses to choose from now – some air beds are the size and shape of a conventional bed, can be bought in king size even and cost almost as much as a standard quality mattress set. The basic ribbed PVC design may now be vulcanized rubber with a fabric coating for extra comfort, the pump may be built-in, battery-operated or electric, rather than foot pump or oral inflation method of old. Yes, the technology has advanced greatly, so if you’re looking for temporary bedding or you just fancy sleeping on air, then air mattresses are worth another look these days.

Crib Mattresses

Normally you will find crib mattresses on sale at mother and baby stores or in the baby-care sections of large retailers, though some bedding centers may stock them too, as well as specialist online stores.

Buying a crib mattress needs some thought and research as cribs are associated with the highest child injury rates of any nursery item. Certain precautions you will need to take when looking for a crib mattress include measuring your crib and the mattress carefully as not all “standard” sizes are standard at all, making sure the mattress is not too soft and carefully reading labels so that you know the exact composition of your mattress. All of these factors can prove hazardous for your child, for different reasons.

Mattress things to consider

There are a number of other things to consider before committing to buy:

Robustness – A new mattress is a big investment, so you need to make sure that your new purchase will last. Part of that equation is down to how you take care of it after you’ve bought it, but the biggest factor in how long it will last is the quality of the materials used in its manufacture.

Comfort – I keep stressing that comfort is the most important factor, and I make no apologies for repeating it here. It is vital that any mattress supports your body frame adequately, so make sure that you get one that provides lots of support around your head and neck, and in the pelvic region. These are the areas that will make the difference between you getting a good night’s sleep or not.

Size – There are two things to consider when choosing the size of your mattress. Firstly you need to know the dimensions of your bedroom to ensure that your new bed will fit. Second, if you have the space in your room, you should never scrimp on the size of the mattress you buy. A king mattress will generally be more than big enough for most couples, and it is a great size if your children are in the habit of sharing your bed.

To help you choose the right size, here’s a handy mattress size chart:

California King Size

72″ x 84″ – (182cm x 213cm)

King Size

76″ x 80″ – (198cm x 203cm)

Queen Size

60″ x 80″ – (153cm x 203cm)

Full – Double Size

54″ x 75″ – (137cm x 190cm)

Twin Size

39″ x 75″ – (99cm x 190cm)

Never forget that you will be sleeping on your new mattress for the next 10 years or so, so take your time making your decision. Use the cheap mattress reviews on this site, and don’t base that decision purely on price, because if the mattress is not comfortable as well, it will probably need replacing quite quickly.

Let’s face it, most mattresses aren’t exactly environmentally friendly, but the growing popularity of Eco mattress models shows that people are trying to address the issue. Eco manufacturers are doing everything they can to ensure their mattresses aren’t harming the planet or your health.

Possible Reactions to Standard Mattresses

If you currently sleep on a memory foam mattress, or use a combination mattress with spring and foam inside, then you may not know that the foam component is usually 100% man-made. Often the foam is manufactured using petroleum-based chemicals like polyurethane that can emit strong odors. Even the flame retardant materials, that are meant to protect us while we sleep, have a potential to harm your health because of their use of chemicals.

Reactions to these chemicals can be irritation to the throat, eyes and nose, difficulty with breathing and even asthma-like reactions.

In addition to this, the carbon footprint from traditional mattress manufacturing is large and the track record of recycling mattresses is not very good – because there are so many component materials that go into the manufacturing process, they are difficult to separate.

The Eco Mattress Alternative

The eco mattress presents an alternative to these chemical-based products and aims for an entirely natural sleeping environment without sacrificing any of the comfort and support we have become accustomed to.

The idea is that they have a smaller carbon footprint to make and deliver, pose less of a health risk and are designed to be recyclable.

You can find them in all the sizes you would expect including Crib size, Twin Extra Long, Twin, Full/Double, Queen, Eastern King/Standard King and California King.

However, to buy one of these mattresses you may have to visit an online store that specializes in Eco-friendly bedding – these are becoming more widespread as the demand for Eco-friendly products in general increases.

Eco-Friendly Materials

You’re might be wondering just what materials would be used in order to be classed as a true Eco-friendly mattresses.

This is normally a combination of certified organic cotton batting, unbleached and uncolored organic cotton or hemp mattress covering fabric, premium Eco wool for the comfort layers, 100% pure natural latex also in the comfort layer ; some mattresses may use tempered steel coils for the support system.

Some mattress makers have also developed a bio-foam; this is a new type of memory foam that adds castor bean oil to the petroleum to make a semi-natural foam without any harmful VOCs or formaldehyde, both of which can cause irritation.

There is nothing man-made in true Eco mattresses, so you are guaranteed to be free from potentially harmful chemicals. They also breathe better than many chemical-based foams so they can stay cooler and moisture-free for a more healthy sleeping surface.

Of course there’s not a lot of point getting an Eco-mattress if the accessories like pillows and comforters are off-gassing chemicals, so if you are heading down the natural products route with your bedding then think about the accessories you will need for your bedroom too.

What’s the Difference?

In terms of comfort and support levels and the overall sleeping experience, most people would find it difficult to tell the difference between a well-made Eco mattress and a standard mattress, in truth.

The extra comfort of Eco mattresses comes more in the peace of mind that you are not exposing yourself to chemicals, and you are being kind to the environment by using all-natural materials.

Mattress Bases

Most Eco mattresses are designed to be used without the traditional box-spring, because this would add to the “footprint” of making the bed. There are however any numbers of high quality wooden beds that will partner your mattress perfectly. This also saves on costs.

Read the Labels!

Some retailers have used the popularity of Eco-friendly products to label their goods a little misleadingly. If being 100% Eco-friendly and using natural or organic materials is important to you then read the fine print and research exactly what has gone into the making of the mattress – don’t just read the headlines!

For example, using cotton that is bleached or dyed can still expose you to chemicals and so for this reason should not be classed as 100% natural or particularly “Eco-friendly”.

Fire Retardancy

A note about fire retardancy: Eco-friendly mattresses can either use all natural 100% wool padding for a fire barrier or a cotton fabric treated with a non-toxic FR agent to achieve the desired protection.

Packaging

It doesn’t make much sense to create Eco-friendly mattresses, only for the packaging to be decidedly unfriendly!

Ideally the packaging uses recyclable material and is kept to a minimum. Some mattresses will be flat-packed and compressed, only returning to their shape after a day of de-compressing. If this is important to you, check with the retailer how your mattress will be packaged.

Prices

You may pay a premium for going Eco-friendly until this way of making mattresses becomes the norm.

Around $1000-$2000 will be the price-range if you are looking for a well-made queen size mattress containing latex foam, wool etc.

You may find cheaper mattresses using cheaper materials but make sure you can guarantee the Eco-friendliness of the model. You can certainly find latex-based all natural mattresses for over $2000 too.

Friendly Return Policy and Warranty?

As with all mattresses, try to find a manufacturer that offers a 30-day comfort exchange policy, so that you can exchange your mattress if you find that you chose the wrong firmness or plushness. This is especially important if you are buying online.

If you are paying a premium you also want that backed up with a decent warranty. Standard for a good quality mattress is 10 years; some manufacturers offer 12 years or more.

Futons were a wonderful invention; they were introduced in the 1960’s and became wildly popular in the 1970’s. The first futons sold came as a set, mattress and frame; you had to purchase the mattress cover separately. The mattress covers were very colorful, psychedelic, batik and tie-dye. The mattresses were very comfortable – if you liked sleeping on a rock! It was a wonderful era, but you had to have been there to really understand and appreciate.

In today’s world, futons are just as useful as they were 50 years ago. Most outlets still sell the futons with ‘horrid’ mattresses – that is why the can sell them so cheaply. If your futon is a little ‘beat up’, the mattress lumpy and just plain ugly, do yourself a favor check the frame. If the frame is still good, chuck the mattress and get a new one.

Futon mattresses that are available now are incredible; you can sleep better on a futon than on a regular bed. The main mattress types are the traditional (foam and cotton), the innerspring (the springs are built into the mattress and have a feel of a ‘real’ bed), and the memory foam mattress. Now that is luxury! You can get the memory foam mattress for as little as $250.00, and it is worth every penny.

You can set up your futon as a bed in the spare room. When opened and made, the futon looks exactly like one of the new platform beds. If you are going to set it up as a bed, get a mattress pad. This will help keep your new mattress clean. There is no need to purchase a futon cover if your mattress is used solely as a bed. The futon can still be used as a couch and converted to a bed when needed.

TIP: Save yourself some money; do not purchase your new mattress at the local outlet. You can try out the mattresses to see which one you like best, but do your purchase online. Online retailers are almost always cheaper; you can find great sales and some merchants’ offer free shipping.

While most parents, college students, singles/bachelors/bachelorettes may think of bunk beds as something only for sailors in cramped quarters traversing the Atlantic, modern designers have come up with creative ways to leverage the bunk bed form to create space-saving furniture ideas. Basically taking a bunk bed and replacing the bottom bed, these “all-in-one” combinations provide a great place for students to put their computers, kids to have extra play space and those with limited space in rooms or apartments to free up valuable square footage.

A fantastic room idea for older kids to college students, this space-saving dorm room computer desk is a loft bunk bed in a sturdy black metal frame finish. It comes with matching metal futon chair frame and a computer chair. It is practically an entire twin-sized dorm!

This versatile space saver is a combination a twin bed and a full size futon. Good for families with a large age discrepancy between two kids that are in the same room. Also, for one child allows for instant sleep-overs, or left as a sofa for lounging.

For the bachelor/bachelorette, an exceptional workstation and sleeping quarters all in one. A sturdy metal frame, loft style design and double ladder access. Tube framing is rugged and is finished to complement any decor. Study space features pullout keyboard tray and bookshelf.

Good for older child to pre-teen, this Storage Twin Loft Bed comes with a 4-drawer Chest, Bookcase, Desk, Birch Side Rail and Birch Ladder/safety rail set. The drawers and desk unit are interchangeable.

With a focus on play area for children, this universal junior loft bed is a fun and creative addition to any child’s room. Choice of colors and accessories can customize it for boys or girls.The loft has bookshelves at both ends to provide ample storage space. It also offers a removable fabric curtain that creates a playhouse in the space below the bed and a removable desk with stool to create a study area. For families that are limited on space, the dresser fits conveniently under the bed, to increase storage space without decreasing your living space.

While the beds above can be found at many online outlets such as bunk-beds-and-loft-beds.com, morebunkbeds.com and simplybunkbeds.com, the main accessory you would have to buy is the bunk bed mattress. Hence, this site was created to provide expert resources on types of mattresses that would be best for your bed, as well as information on pricing and quality. Bunk bed mattress could come in Innerspring, latex, foam and memory foam (generally the most expensive). Choice of mattress should be made based on if you are using the bed occasionally for guests or every night, the size and weight of the individual, price, quality and of course, going to physical stores and lying on the mattress to actually experience the comfort.

In 1926 Dunlop first developed a process that turned the raw rubber sap collected from rubber trees into a vulcanized latex foam that could be used in bedding. That was the birth of latex being used in mattresses and pillows and many people may be surprised that latex was being used so long ago by the British. It is viewed generally as one of the “newer” materials and in the US, latex mattresses are still luxury items.

Since 1926, of course, the process of latex foam making has not stood still. In addition to the Dunlop latex, which had the feature of being slightly denser at its base than at the top, because of the rubber sediment settling towards the base of the mold, a new process was developed and became widely used in the 1940′s. This is the Talalay method of latex foam making and it adds a vacuum and freezing step to the process which stabilizes the cell structure of the rubber and includes the addition of carbon dioxide before it is heated. This produces a foam of more even density than the Dunlop process.

Talalay latex is marketed as being healthier than the Dunlop method because it is less likely to give off volatile compounds as they age. It is also often marketed as “natural” or “organic” which is not always true because during the process most Talalay latex uses “unspecified curing agents” which may include man-made chemicals, as well as the use of ammonia in stabilizing the liquid rubber. If you are looking at natural latex mattresses be sure that the manufacturer claims are not misleading. There are many synthetic latex materials out on the market now and they will often be used in the cheaper mattresses you see. A manufacturer like Ikea is very upfront about the latex they use and even on their web site they will detail the percentage of synthetic and natural latex in a particular mattress.

Whether you choose Talalay or Dunlop latex may depend on the overall feel you want from your mattress. Talalay provides a more pillowy-soft surface than Dunlop, which is slightly denser and considered to be more durable.

It is the natural springiness and support of latex, as well as its inherent hypo-allergenic, anti-microbial and dust-mite resistant qualities, which makes it an ideal choice in mattress comfort layers. Often nowadays you will see latex mattresses sitting at the top of the range of the established manufacturers, with a few inches of latex foam being used to top off the conventional pocket-spring mattress. It is a combination that offers the best of both worlds but it usually comes at a premium price as the thing you will notice about latex is – it’s not cheap.

Generally the best latex mattresses are well received by owners, who report great motion isolation and general comfort and support levels, as well as good breathe-ability. The main complaint about latex mattresses are that they are heavy, which can make turning and changing the sheets a little harder than standard inner-spring mattresses.

Buying mattresses based on price alone can be a dangerous and costly game, as without considering all the other factors we could be left with one that disturbs our sleep, damages our posture or is simply rendered useless after a year. However there are some situations when a cheap double mattress is a good solution in most homes….

If you have visitors popping that sometimes turn into overnight guests and you don’t have a spare room, then how do you provide adequate bedding for them? I’m sure you’d rather not turn them away to the nearest motel or make them drive home late.

Keeping a couple of cheap double mattresses around is a great way of looking after your visitors – whether they are couples or individuals – and they needn’t even take up much space, if you choose the right type.

There are two kinds of mattresses that fit the bill perfectly for space and cost saving – the air mattress and the futon bed.

The air mattress can be packed away into a closet and, when needed, brought out and inflated quickly and easily using the electric or battery–operated pumps. If you keep a bed in a bag handy you can conveniently add all the bed linen and have the bed made in minutes. Whether your guests sleep on the living room floor or in the hallway, they can get a good comfortable night’s sleep from a well-made double air mattress, which is easily adjustable for their desired level of firmness (just inflate or deflate a little!). You can usually pick up these mattresses for $50 – $200 online.

Futons are usually cotton-filled mattresses that will be used flat on their frame as a bed or upright on their frame as a sofa. They save space because they are dual-purpose so, like the air mattress, they are ideal for apartment living. Futons come in a variety of sizes and many different styles of covers are available, making them easy to maintain and able to fit in with all decors. Depending on what style of frame and mattress you choose a futon will cost you anything from under $100 to $750.

These are two instances where inexpensive double mattresses can be put to good use in the home. The key is that they are only for occasional use (unless you are also using the futon as your main sofa, of course) so will not have to be the most robust, best made items that have to stand up to daily wear and tear. In the case of the futon that you use as your main sofa, of course it’s worth spending a bit extra on that to ensure a good quality wooden or steel frame and a mattress that will retain its comfort over time.

Bragada may be a manufacturer that you are not familiar with but you may be surprised to know that they have been hand-making mattresses in the US since 1958. That’s over 50 years. Here we look at the online resources and some Bragada mattress reviews to summarize what the company offers and what you can expect if you are considering one of their models.

Bragada claim to have made bedding for nearly 15 million homes in the last 50 years. They back up the quality of their workmanship with a lifetime manufacturers warranty on every mattress. Their flagship products are their memory foam mattresses and their adjustable beds, which are made using CoolTempTM Visco-Elastic Memory Foam and topped off using natural materials like 100% pure cotton, bamboo, and soft silk and cashmere fabrics – available on every sleep system, memory foam mattress and mattress topper they make. Your exact choices will be made to order in their factory. Most of their mattresses are sold online, which helps to keep down costs.

Another boast that Bragada make is that their memory foam mattresses are the only memory foam models in the world to be awarded the Orthopaedic Research Institute Seal of Approval.

Looking at their memory foam mattresses, we see 10 basic models ranging in thicknesses from the 7-inch Aspen, featuring 2″ of 4.0 lb memory foam topped by a luxurious 4-way stretch fabric, to the 15-inch Vivaldi which features 6 inches of 4.5 lb dense memory foam and a quilted cashmere anti-microbial fabric.

The most basic Aspen model weighs in at about $450 for queen size mattress and you should add another $200 if you want the box spring with it and $90 for a cover. The Vivaldi, on the other hand, will be around $1500 for queen size mattress with the same additional pricing for the extras.

Bragada mattresses are set up to compete directly with Tempurpedic memory foam mattresses and other, cheaper manufacturers and they are aggressive in their stance, often talking about their “competitors’ inferior products.” They back up their quality assurances with a 121-night at-home trial of all of their memory foam mattresses except the Aspen.

On the review sites Bragada mattresses fared somewhat less favorably than you would expect, from some of their claims. They rated well for affordability and motion isolation (as most memory foam mattresses do) but were marked down consistently for premature sagging and softening (twice as often as with Tempurpedic, in fact.) Almost twice as many users also reported the mattresses causing pain than with Tempurpedic, too.

Ikea have been supplying products in the US since the 1980′s and are one of the leading brands in the world for home goods. Their range of mattresses and beds include inner-spring, standard foam, high-resilience foam and memory foam as well as latex foam. Here we concentrate on the Ikea latex mattress review sites out there and see what we can learn.

The Ikea latex mattresses are from their Sultan range. There are the Erfjord , the Elsfjord and the Engenes, which are all latex models, the Sultan Fjordgard which is a memory foam and latex blend, the Sultan Fossing which mixes foam with latex and the Sultan Holmsta which blends latex with inner-springs.

Let’s take them in price order, with the most expensive first. The Erfjord is the top of the range and costs $699 for a twin. It features seven inches of 85% natural latex (15 % synthetic latex), with all its pressure-relieving capacity and seven comfort zones aimed at tailoring the support levels to your body. The open-cell structure of the latex material allows good air circulation and moisture to evaporate naturally. The finishes are 100% eco-cotton, which keeps things natural and aids the breathe-able nature of the bed. The mattress is reversible which helps maintain and keep it free from wear and tear.

The Sultan Engenes is $549 for a twin and features a 7 1/8″ thick blend of natural and synthetic latex (20 % natural/ 80 % synthetic) and 5 comfort zones for pressure relief of comfort and hips. The open cell latex material allows for great air circulation. There is a removable cover that can be machine washed and the mattress is reversible, so maintenance is easy and wear and tear can be minimized.

The Sultan Fjordgard, which is $509 for a twin, blends a 2″ thick layer of latex (20 % natural/ 80 % synthetic) with high-resilience foam to provide good comfort layers. The mattress is kept breathe-able, moisture-free and temperature controlled by the lamb’s wool and lyocell in the ticking. It is easy to maintain and keep clean by the removable cover provided, which can be machine-washed.

The Sultan Fossing, which is $409 for a twin, mixes a 1″ thick layer of latex (20 % natural/ 80 % synthetic) with high-resilience foam for its comfort layers. It also use the lamb’s wool and lyocell filling and the removable cover providing the same benefits as mentioned above.

The Sultan Holmsta is $399 for a twin and blends synthetic latex cushioning and foam for comfort with 260 Active-Response Coils (in a twin) that respond to you body and relieve pressure, while maintaining spinal alignment and providing support and also controlling motion transfer. A blend of synthetic and natural fibers makes up the ticking, fabric encasements and protective fabrics.

The Sultan Elsfjord weighs in at $349 for a twin and uses 5 .5″ of synthetic latex, providing comfort, temperature regulation and breathe-ability. It has the removable cover and is reversible.

In the Ikea latex mattress reviews we read there was a better response than for the Ikea spring mattresses. Owner satisfaction was very high especially with value for money, comfort, motion isolation and being odorless and noiseless. The main downsides mentioned were that they are heavy (like all latex mattresses), excessive firmness and occasional sagging.

Comparing mattresses directly between two different brands can be rather dangerous as it really does come down to personal preference. Between the best, most established mattress manufacturers the differences can be very minor and may come down to a particular fabric used or another single feature. If we are asked to compare Simmons vs Sealy perhaps we should look at the leading mattress model in each range and see how they shape up.

Simmons and Sealy are two of the oldest manufacturers in the US and both are instantly-recognizable household names with mattress models that are also instantly known by many. In the case of Simmons we have the BeautyRest and with Sealy we have the Posturepedic. Both are innerspring mattresses, so let’s see the relevant features of each.

Simmons’ BeautyRest was first introduced to the market in 1925, so we are talking about a history of 85 years for a single mattress brand! It has always used pocketed coil springs to provide the comfort and support and they have made innovations and additions over the years, as the spring technology has advanced. The BeautyRest added strength by using heavy-gauge steel and extra comfort by using high performance foams, pillow top finishes and enhanced support by re-designing their foundations to meet the needs of the times. Use of premium foam layers (memory foam and latex) and the luxury line BeautyRest Black have been the latest innovations.

The Super Pocketed Coil springs presently used in the BeautyRest are high carbon steel springs that are pre-compressed and sit inside their non-allergenic fabric cases. This means that there is great conformity to body shape and the motion isolation is better because the springs are not tied as in continuous coil models. The main models in the BeautyRest range include the Classic, the Anniversary, the World Class, the Exceptionale and the NxG. The Exceptionale features a dual-layer pocket spring design that doubles up on the support, whilst the NxG uses Next Generation memory foam for extra comfort.

Sealy’s Posturepedic has almost as much history as the BeautyRest, being introduced 65 years ago, so it too has stood the test of time remarkably. There are two basic models of Posturepedic, one using the Titanium SS single-stage coil system and the other using the Titanium DSx dual-stage system. The latter is the premium type, offering enhanced and conforming support on the surface and deeper down in the mattress.

The Posturepedic also features a CoreSupport Center, which adds support to the central third of the mattress, where the heaviest part of your body is resting. As well as this the StayTight foundation is rubberized and means the mattress won’t move around at night and the SitRight Edge system means that the sides of the mattress are well reinforced. Other useful features of the Posturepedic bed are its adjustable base and the LiftRight handles that are on most mattresses. These allow it to be moved easily, which benefits flipping and turning the mattress as well as changing the bed linen.

Our advice if you want to compare Simmons and Sealy is to go to the store, lie on the beds, feel the comfort levels, the support, the quality of the finish and the overall workmanship. That’s the only way of really knowing which one suits you best. You can always go back online to actually buy the mattress you are after.

Waterbeds for many people may be a throwback to the 1970′s but, like many ’70′s things, they are becoming popular again. In fact it’s a little surprising that it’s taken so long for waterbed mattresses to have their resurgence.

They come in two main forms – that’s the hard-sided beds and the soft-sided beds. On a hard-sided bed the waterbed mattress sits inside a rectangular wooden frame which rests on a plywood deck which all sits on a platform. A soft-sided waterbed has the mattress sitting inside a frame of sturdy foam, zippered inside a fabric casing, which sits on a platform that may resemble a conventional box-spring. The soft-sided type looks more like a standard bed.

How comfortable a waterbed is nowadays will largely depend on the mattress. The early ones often used a single water chamber which meant that motion in one area of the bed was transferred very easily via waves into the other areas of the bed. For sleeping couples this obviously wasn’t ideal. As the technology improved the mattresses incorporated wave-reducing methods such as fiber batting and interconnected water chambers. Nowadays some of the most expensive waterbeds are, essentially wave-less and use a mixture of interconnected air and water chambers.

Most waterbed mattresses are made from PVC. Punctures can be repaired with a normal vinyl repair kit. Many of these beds are heated ( sleeping on cold water can be uncomfortable)and temperature will be controlled by a thermostat, but this can be a rather expensive process as it uses a lot of electricity, especially in the case of a hard-sided model.

Other downsides of waterbeds include that sometimes hard-sided beds are made in different sizes to standard mattresses so that finding the right sized bedding can be problematical; movement of waterbeds is difficult as the bed needs to be drained, the base taken apart and, after movement, it needs to be re-assembled and filled with water that may need to be heated for many hours until it’s ready for use; also the chances of an annoying leak at some point in your waterbed’s life are fairly high – a plastic liner is a good idea to reduce damage but it will still need repairing which is a big inconvenience as the water will have to be drained and then re-filled again; the other major disadvantage is the heavy weight of a fully-filled waterbed, which can put a stress on floorboards in some properties – rented apartments especially may restrict the use of waterbeds.

Looking on the brighter side, the main advantages of waterbeds are that wave-less, heated models are extremely comfy, as there is virtually no pressure on the spine or the joints from water. The other main reason why people might choose a waterbed is that there is no place for dust-mites or other potential allergens to hide; even dirt and dead skin can be easily cleaned from the surface of the bed so they are very hygienic and easy to maintain.

The price of waterbeds will vary hugely – you will see $200 beds online, but you will also see $2000 beds in the same stores. As ever, do your research first and choose carefully.

Sleep Number beds are made by Select Comfort and have been on the market for about 25 years now. You may have seen them advertised on TV by Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or you may even have been into one of their 400 stores nationwide. They have been marketed as the adjustable bed for personalized comfort on each side of the mattress, but how much does a Sleep Number bed cost?

Let’s first just see what these beds feature as it will help to explain their price. They have an adjustable air chamber in the middle of each side of the mattress. Above the foundation, the air chamber is situated between two support foam layers, above which lies a comfort pad of foam before the mattress is topped off by a breathable knit fabric cover. So the whole bed is foam and air based – there are no springs at all.

Select Comfort advertise their Sleep Number bed prices on their web site so there is no great mystery, but their pricing policy can mean that it’s very difficult to find discounted beds.

The Classic range features 4 beds ranging in price from $1000 – $1800 for a queen size mattress with a standard modular base (not including a mattress cover.) The pricing difference is based upon the thickness of the mattress and the type of remote control.

The Performance Series includes 3 beds that range in price from $2000 – $2800 for a queen size mattress with a standard modular base. Again thicknesses vary between the cheaper and more expensive models, as well as the usage of memory foam in the top of the range P7 model.

Finally the two mattresses in the Innovation series are priced at $3000 and $4500 for a queen size, depending on the thickness of the memory foam comfort layer.

You will see from the above that the Sleep Number bed cost will be prohibitive for many people, but Select Comfort do run sale pricing on their beds from time to time and it’s worth checking their web site for current promotions. Often savings of a few hundred dollars are advertised there.

Ikea are a massive European name in home decorating, originating from Scandinavia and now being recognized all around the world for reasonably-priced, good quality products. They have outlets in over 40 countries and have been in the US since the 1980′s. Let’s take a look at some Ikea mattress review sites to see how their bedding shapes up.

I think it’s fair to say that Ikea mattresses fall into the value-for-money, high-volume bracket. They are made for bulk sale and are therefore priced very much at the lower end of the scale.

There are around 20-25 mattresses to choose from in several ranges. The most basic twin size Jaren spring mattresses can be picked up for around $80 online and would be best suited as a spare bed – they probably would not stand up to the rough and tumble of everyday usage. Even thicker spring mattresses like the Sultan Huglo are only around $150 online. Slightly more advanced active response coil mattresses are also available at a slightly higher price.

Next we move to the foam mattresses. Ikea make a mixture of high-resilience foam mattresses, memory foam mattresses and latex mattresses. The memory foam models range from $200 – $600 for a twin size, depending on thickness. Natural latex models are around $350 – $700 (twin size) and are top of the range, as per usual, though there are couple of spring/latex combinations that are cheaper.

Ikea mattresses, while very reasonable priced, do come with a 25 year limited warranty in most cases (please note that the Jaren, mentioned above, does NOT.) In the US you are able to exchange a mattress within ninety days if you’re not satisfied with it.

They use edge support technology that reinforces the area of the mattress that suffers wear and tear most easily – Ikea claim that a 220 pound weight is raised and lowered onto the bed’s edge 20,000 times during testing. They also claim that the main body of their mattresses are tested by a body weight moving up and down on them 10,000 times.

Ikea mattresses are sold with a choice of removable, washable covers that make maintenance of the mattresses a breeze. They make a wide array of mattress toppers and bed bases too, including box springs and slatted bases that are often bought together with the mattresses. They also have a range of futon beds and sofa-beds if you are looking for space-saving ideas.

Ikea mattress reviews are a little hard to come by online, other than on the Ikea site itself. One site that we did spend some time one rated most Ikea mattresses well for their value for money and warranty, as well as their overall comfort. The main criticism was that some of their mattresses are not very thick so watch out for that when shopping.

There’s not really much of a secret to finding the best mattress prices these days. Unless you are lucky enough to need a new mattress at the time that a bedding center is closing down and you can pick up a phenomenal price in the sale they are holding, then it is likely that the best price will be online. If you are reading this then you will probably know that already and you may be familiar with the discounts that can be made by buying items online.

A word of warning here though, to those who are not used to the process – it is all well and good going for the cheap mattress prices you can find online, but it’s not much use if the mattress you receive is not comfortable, not the right one or is delivered to the wrong address! Each of these things can and do happen…here’s how to prevent them happening to you.

Firstly you need to research your product. Considering you may be using it for 8 hours a night for the next 10 years it’s the least you can do for your peace of mind and your back! Spending time to check the manufacturers’ web site and balance the claims they make with what independent review sites say is a good way of getting a fuller picture.

Also, balance your online research with testing beds out in-store. Beds are a very personal buy, so the more you can try the more you will have a feel for the right type for your body. If you will be sharing your mattress with a partner then make sure you both check them out.

The trick is to make notes while shopping in the store. Take note of the exact models you like, the sizes, the finishes and all the options that are best for you. You can then check for mattresses from the same maker of this exact spec online. You may be lucky and find the exact one at a reduced price from the store. Buying “cold” online, having no prior experience of comfort or support levels, is a dangerous path to take and is not advised.

Likewise, if you do decide to take advantage of the best mattress prices online then be sure to use a retailer that has a good track record of delivering what it promises. That means that they should have efficient selection, ordering, payment and delivery procedures.

Corsicana mattress reviews – Named after the Texas town in which they were founded, Corsicana Bedding Inc. was formed in 1971, so they are relatively new on the US mattress-making scene. Originally formed to meet the demand for furniture and bedding from mobile home manufacturers, they expanded to become a leading US retail brand of box-spring beds, especially in the western states. That expanded eastwards to the point that they eventually moved their manufacturing plant to Tennessee, where they are now based.

Corsicana pride themselves on being low cost, high volume, wholesale manufacturers and supplying discount models that are attractive to dealers and are delivered on time. They market to dealers rather than to the public.

Nowadays, Corsicana mattresses fall into 6 main ranges and the company also makes bunk-beds and has a rental service. The 6 mattress ranges are the Visco Memory Foam collection, the Regal Collection, the Elegance Collection, the Elite Collection, the Bingham Collection and the Harmony Collection.

All of the Inner-spring collections feature a large range of mattresses. In most of the collections there are 4 Double-Sided mattresses that vary from 290-460 inner-springs (Verticoils or Bonnell springs), 9 Single-Sided mattresses that have a similar range of spring densities, 7 Foam-Encased mattresses that all have 460 Verticoils but are foam encased to add more edge support to the sides. Finally in the Bingham Collection are the Pocket-Spring mattresses that feature between 567 and 720 pocket springs in foam encased units. Most of the mattresses mentioned come with a 1 to 5 year warranty, except the pocket springs which are little higher grade and carry a 10-year warranty. The differences between the Regal, Harmony, Elegance, Elite and Bingham are minimal.

The Visco Memory Foam range includes 3 mattresses with Plush, Euro-top or Pillow-top finishes. The lowest spec model features 2 inches of 4 LB memory foam with 6 inches of support foam and the highest grade model uses 3 inches of memory foam and 7 inches of support foam. All mattresses come with a 10 year warranty.

Corsicana mattress prices are very reasonable. They don’t pretend to make the highest quality mattresses and there prices are clearly aimed at high volume. You can pick Queen size inner-springs up for a few hundred dollars online and even their memory foam models are not expensive. It is actually quite difficult to find a Corsicana mattress priced at more than about $650.

Reports about the mattresses offering 5 to 10 year warranties are fairly good, with many people happy that they didn’t spend the extra money on a higher-end brand that spends a lot of their money on advertising – which the mattress buyer ends up paying for. Corsicana advertises only to dealers, so their overheads are immediately lower in this sense.

The Sealy Posturepedic mattress is something of an institution in the mattress world, if only for the length of time that it’s been gracing the showroom floors around the US. Not only have Sealy themselves been making mattresses for 130 years, but they have been producing the Posturepedic model in various guises for 60 years!

During the Great Depression, Sealy not only managed to survive, but they introduced a new Button-Free Innerspring mattress model. This tells you something about the company and helps explain why they have risen to become the largest mattress manufacturer in the world. They sell a LOT of beds!

Even as times have changed and new models have been introduced – like the Embody range of memory foam and latex foam mattresses – the Sealy Posturepedic models still sit proudly as a key feature of the Sealy lines.

If you are looking to buy one of these what will you get for your investment? Firstly, being 60 years old, you probably guessed it’s a traditional innerspring model but it’s not quite that simple. There are 2 different types of systems used – one using the Posturepedic Titanium SS technology and the other using the Posturepedic Titanium DSx. The SS is a single-stage coil and the DSx is a dual-stage coil that offers even more support. The center third of the mattress, where the most support is necessary, is power-packed to further increase support there.

All mattresses feature LiftRight handles which may or may not go all the way around, making maintenance of the mattresses (turning, flipping, changing bed linen) much easier. They also feature a StayTight rubber foundation cover stops shifting of the mattress on its base.

Around the edges of Sealy Posturepedic mattresses you find the SitTight Edge System which reinforces the bed edges from the wear and tear they can experience; it also extends the sleeping surface right to the corners of the mattress.

The base of a Posturepedic is adjustable and uses a Dual Massage programmable position memory function and a wireless controller.

The top of the mattress comes down to your personal taste, as Sealy offer plush, firm and pillow-top finishes for you to choose from.

The mattresses are available in all the standard sizes you would expect, plus the California King size and a split Queen size (two 30″ x 80″ box springs.) They all come with a 10 year warranty.

Sealy Posturepedic prices vary depending on the options you choose, but the most basic Queen size mattress will be around $600. If you choose a Titanium DSx it will be around $900 for the mattress.

Loft beds are from the same family as bunk beds, in that they include an elevated bed on the top level that is usually reached by a ladder running up the end of the structure; unlike bunk beds they don’t have a lower bed. Instead they have an open space underneath that can be used for storage using a chest, drawers, shelves or even a desk or work station.

Sometimes the storage devices may be built in to the structure. This makes them popular in homes where space can be a problem – especially in kids’ rooms, where clutter and mess can be a problem and where loft beds will also hold some novelty value.

Sturdy, cheap loft beds are available at major online retailers like Amazon, as well as sites that focus on bunk bed style beds. They may be more expensive than bunk beds if they have built in storage areas or other features, as some do. For example, some of them will have a built in trundle bed that stores away and can be rolled out when needed to provide an extra sleeping surface.

As with other types of beds like cabin (captain’s) beds, designers have become more and more creative with loft beds to tap into their novelty value with children. This has created something of a resurgence in the popularity of kids loft beds. Nowadays there are ones specifically aimed at young girls bedrooms that are pink colored and Wendy House or cottage shaped, with slides and other accessories; likewise for boys there are loft beds in the theme of castles or boats.

The simplest kids loft beds, made of powder-coated steel and really just a frame with a slatted upper base for a twin mattress, a side rail for safety and a built-in ladder, are available for a couple of hundred dollars online, with the more elaborate themed ones, made from wood and with lots of built-in draws, closets and a workstation, rising to over two thousand dollars, even when discounted on Amazon.

If you’ve ever had to consider getting temporary bedding for your home you are probably no stranger to the air mattress concept, whereby an inflatable bed can be deflated and packed away in a closet when not being used, to save floor-space. Here we take a look at one of the leading manufacturers of these items, by casting an eye over the Coleman air mattress collection.

The first mattress to look at is the Double High Pillow Top Air Mattress. This is a queen size bed (78″ long by 60″ wide when inflated) that is as thick as a standard mattress and is topped off with a fiber-filled, quilted, pillow-top pad, just like a standard mattress. Of course there are no springs or foam though – just air inside. The pad zips off and can be machine washed for easy maintenance. The bed is designed for permanent or frequent use (as opposed to some air mattresses which are not as robust and are designed for temporary or occasional use.) It has a built-in electric pump that inflates and deflates the bed in seconds and the Coleman Airtight System guarantees a leak-free mattress. Usually it comes with a convenient carry bag that makes it nice and portable.

Another of the more popular air beds from Coleman is the Queen Double-High Airbed with 120 Volt Pump. This mattress measures 78″ long x 60″ wide x 17″ thick when inflated, so is again the same size as a standard queen mattress set that raises the sleeper well off the floor. It has a soft suede finish to it that provides a smooth and soft sleeping surface. Obviously firmness can be controlled by deflating or inflating the mattress and it comes with an electric pump that inflates the bed in about 3 minutes. It uses the Coleman Advanced Double Lock Valve, which locks in the air, working in combination with the Coleman Airtight System. It is easy to store as it can be rolled up, so it makes an ideal bed to keep for visitors who need a place to rest their head for the night. You should find that this mattress wears well as it is made from resilient PVC that doesn’t puncture easily but, like with all air mattresses, it’s best to keep the cats away from it!

The above mattress also comes in Twin size, measuring 78″ long x 39″ wide x 17″ thick when fully inflated. There are several other variations on this theme in the Coleman Collection that are featured on their web site and available on Amazon for around $60-80. Coleman also makes a combination air mattress and cot, designed for guests or camping quarters. It has a lightweight aluminum folding frame and nylon cover and the frame carries a three-year warranty.

If you’re expecting a new arrival in the coming months you will have to put some time to selecting from the wide array of baby cribs available in the mother and baby stores, baby sections of department stores and at specialist sites online. The trick to making a good choice is combining reading online with physical testing and measuring.

Starting with size, there is a standard crib size in the US, since regulators clamped down in the 1970′s.This is 30 inches wide by 54 inches long. This is important because when you buy your crib mattress it will need to fit as snugly as possible. You will need to measure both the crib and the mattress yourself , rather than relying on the measurements on the labels, and when the mattress is sitting in the crib there should not be more than two fingers width of a gap between the mattress edge and the crib sides. This is a safety precaution so that there is no place for catching anything or creating suffocation risks.

There are many other safety considerations to bear in mind, seeing as that’s the single most important factor when selecting the best baby cribs. Most manufacturers in the US fully abide by the guidelines set down by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but it doesn’t hurt for you to know some of the key ones as you are choosing your crib: firstly, the vertical bars or slats on the sides and ends must be 2 and 3/8 inches or less apart, so that your baby cannot get stuck or fall through. You should also check that the slats or bars are fixed firmly and cannot be dislodged by a strong baby. Thirdly, when the sides are lowered there must be at least 9 inches between the top of the mattress and the top of the side; this distance must be 26 inches minimum when the sides are raised.

This last point will not be a factor in the future because, as of June 2011, all cribs sold in the US will have to have fixed sides; the sale of and use of drop-side cribs in hotels and care centers will be prohibited, because of connections to infant deaths. In fact, 50 infants die each year and around 9,000 are injured in crib bed accidents in the U.S.

Apart from the regulations there are some basic safety precautions you can take yourself so that you know you are choosing one of the safest baby cribs. This includes a firmness test for the mattress: if you can bend it in two then it is far too soft; it will need to have some firmness to it so that suffocation pockets cannot form.

In addition to this, check carefully what is in your baby mattress. Sometimes labels can be misleading and claim all “natural” materials despite chemicals being used in the treatment of those materials to make them waterproof or fire retardant for example. Many parents like to choose all natural or organic crib mattresses nowadays, which use materials like wool, cotton and latex, so there is no risk of toxins affecting their baby.

Nowadays baby cribs come in many different designs and some of them can even be converted in to a toddler’s bed when the child has outgrown the crib. As well as convertible cribs there are also Jenny Lind designs, sleigh designs, rocking cribs, mini-cribs, round cribs, portable cribs and cribs for twins. Some cribs may be mounted on caster wheels these days and others may include storage compartments underneath.

You might be lucky and find safe, well-made cheap baby cribs online, but be wary of ones that are too cheap as they may not last or they may present a safety hazard.

Serta, based in Illinois, are the second largest mattress manufacturer in the US after Sealy. They have been making mattresses for 80 years and are best known for their inner-spring mattresses like the Perfect Sleeper and also their latex mattresses, which they supply to the hospitality industry as well as to home users. Here we take a quick look at the Serta memory foam mattress range to see how it stacks up.

The Vera Wang is probably the best known of the Serta memory foam mattresses. The collection actually uses Serta’s exclusive Free Flex Innerspring (532 coils in a queen size) as its core and latex foam or memory foam is added in selected models. The memory foam model is a luxurious bed that uses a dense, high quality, 5lb memory foam that molds to the contours of the body, relieves pressure on the joints and reduces motion transfer to an absolute minimum, because it absorbs the movement of the sleeper without affecting the other sections of the mattress. It uses SmartFabric technology to finish the mattress off and keep the sleeping surface cool. The Vera Wang mattresses are also extremely sturdy and robust, employing a double-beam foundation and they back up this durability with a 30-year limited warranty.

If you are shopping for a Vera Wang mattress then you will need to check out the various comfort finishes that Serta provide – whether you opt for the Euro-Top, the Firm or the Plush finish will depend on just how soft you like your comfort layer. The Euro Top features an extra layer of upholstery to provide extra cushioning like the Pillow-Top (but it will feel slightly firmer than the Pillow-Top.) The Plush finish will feel soft even without the extra upholstery layer – this is achieved by extra comfort layers at the sleep surface. Some people choose the Vera Wang without these comfort finishes and prefer the classic memory foam with zippered cover, so that they are sleeping directly on the memory foam core rather than plush comfort layers on top of it.

Serta claim that they make the best mattresses in the world. This can be debated forever, but the Vera Wang memory foam model is certainly well rated online. A queen sells for around $1500 in stores but you should be able to pick it up at a discounted price online.

Southerland Inc. is another one of the traditional US manufacturers that has been producing mattresses for well over a century. With their headquarters in Nashville Tennessee they are unusual in that they are 100% employee-owned. Southerland made a name for quality in production of inner-spring mattresses but recently announced an agreement with the Sharper Image to make specialty mattresses in memory foam, inner spring, air and latex, plus adjustable mattresses. Here we take a quick look at the existing Southerland mattress range.

The main Southerland collections are the basic Southerland range, the Sleep Xpressions range, the American Sleep range, the Estate Collection, the Majestic gold, the Majestic Silver and the Total Protection range.

If we take a cross-section of Southerland mattresses from across these ranges we see that a queen size Sleep Xpressions Rockwell inner-spring is a 14 inch mattress that includes over 800 coils in combination with memory foam or latex foam. It costs around $900 and comes with a 12-year warranty. A queen size Singer mattress from the same range is slightly thicker, uses latex foam and costs around $1000 and a Turner will be around $1200.

In the Majestic Silver range a queen size Athens mattress is a 7.6 inches thick mattress, using around 460 coils, polyurethane foam in the comfort layers and comes with a 7-year warranty. This mattress retails for around $400.

This gives you a feel for Southerland mattresses but it is rather difficult to find much information online for such an established mattress manufacturer. The Southerland official web site has many pictures of their beds but very little detail on the individual products; likewise you may find it a struggle to find much in the way of meaningful Southerland mattress reviews.

Fold Up beds are something you may consider for a temporary bedding solution where space is at a premium – like in a small apartment for example. Usually apartment living means that you don’t have a spare room, so if you want to host overnight guests then you need a way to provide a temporary bed without it taking up floor-space. There are a few options available for you.

Probably the most common space-saving beds in this situation are futon sofa-beds and air mattresses – not really fold-up beds – but saving space by acting as a sofa or chair in the case of a futon and being able to be packed away in a cupboard in the case of an air mattress.

A true fold up bed, on the other hand, can be in the form of a simple army-style canvas bed on a metal frame – usually a single/twin size for one person; an ottoman bed that stacks joined cushions into an ottoman stool when not being used as a folded-out bed – again, usually a one-person size; a wall bed or “Murphy bed” as it’s known in the US, that completely hides in the wall and then folds out – this may be a full, queen or king size unit and is a very high end solution; or, most commonly a fold-up bed may be in the same form that a hotel or hospital will use for an extra guest in a room – these will fold a metal frame and mattress in half, so that it can be stored neatly in a cupboard or storage room, taking up no floor-space. Many of these will be mounted on caster wheels for extra portability and may be called “rollaway beds.”

If you are looking for any of these types of folding bed units to keep tucked away in your apartment the best place to shop is online. Most bricks and mortar stores may have very limited ranges of these types of specialist beds but online there are stores that are designed with these fold up beds and other temporary bedding solutions in mind. There will be more choice and the prices will be more competitive. Of course you need to check brands and quality, but it’s less important for you to check personal comfort levels as it will only be used occasionally and temporarily, not every night like a bed in the master bedroom.

For example, a cheap fold up hotel-style bed, on wheels, can be bought for around $150 online. Higher-end, heavy duty models with sturdier frames and plusher mattresses may be up to $500 or $600, but there are plenty of designs to choose from between these two extremes.

Slumberland may bring a couple of things to mind, depending on which side of the Atlantic you are based. In the US, Slumberland is the name of a furniture retailer that has been operating since the 1960′s; however, in the UK Slumberland is a well-established mattress manufacturer that has been in business since 1919. Here we concentrate on the latter and take a look at the Slumberland mattress collection.

Slumberland is now part of the Hilding Anders group, which is the largest bed group in Europe. They originally made their name making fine quality pocket-spring mattresses and divan bases and this has continued in modern times – their Pocketed Posture Springs are used in their models, each row of springs being encapsulated within its own continuous pocket. They have also lead the way with a number of design innovations in their mattresses, with the release of the no-turn sprung interior mattress, and in their divans, with the introduction of drawers for extra storage space. More recently they have started to use 100% bamboo covers on selected mattresses in a move to make the company more biodegradable, sustainable and eco-friendly.

Looking at their mattress collections, we see 4 major ranges of mattresses – the Seal, the Memory Collection, the Latex Collection and the Posture Flex Collection.

The Seal Collection incorporates 3 standards of Slumberland mattresses – the Gold, Silver and the Bronze Seal models. The top-of-the-range Gold Seal mattress features 2700 pocket-springs with a mini pocket-spring system also incorporated. The upholstery layers feature natural wool, silk and Dunlopillo latex for a very luxurious feel that tops of the support of the inner-coils very well. The fabrics used to finish the mattress are filled with friendly micro-biotic micro-capsules that keep the mattress breathe-able, allergy-free, healthy and fresh. The mattress does not have to be flipped, so maintenance is very easy with some rotating every now and again. The Silver Seal is almost identical, but features 2300 coils and natural cotton and wool fabrics with reflex foam in the filling rather than latex; the Bronze Seal features 1900 pocket-springs and cotton and wool upholstery fabrics.

The Posture-Flex Collection features 9 Slumberland mattresses in total, ranging from the high-end Topaz to the Shannon. These mattresses are a step down from the more luxurious Seal collection. The Topaz features 800 pocket-springs and is memory foam encapsulated for support from edge-to-edge and the upholstery consists of wool which provides natural spring. Like the Seal range the Topaz requires no flipping. At the lower end of the Posture-Flex collection, the Shannon has 500 pocket springs but this mattress needs to be turned every 6 months for best performance and longevity.

The Memory Collection has 5 mattresses combining different densities of pocket springs (from 800-1200) with Contour Flow Memory Foam, which improves airflow and reduces pressure points by conforming to the body shape and spreading the weight across the mattress. These mattresses all use 100% bamboo covers; the mattresses are foam-encapsulated and do not need to be turned. The divans for these beds, like in other collections from Slumberland, have optional drawers available which can be built-in.

Finally the Latex Collection features 3 mattresses combining the quality pocket springs you expect from Slumberland with a layer of Dunlopillo latex that provides great air-flow and luxurious comfort. Many of the other features are similar to those described above in the Memory Collection.

Overall then there is something for everyone in the Slumberland ranges, where you can opt for a traditionally crafted pocket spring mattress using all the tried and tested methods of mattress-making or combine modern materials with that know-how to get the best of both worlds. All of their mattresses are backed with a twelve year warranty.

You won’t find them in standard bedding centers but you may see cabin beds mentioned online at some specialist bedding sites and wonder what they are and exactly who would use them.

Essentially a cabin bed is a raised bed that has storage areas underneath in the form of drawers or other compartments. They are sometimes referred to as a captain’s beds, chest beds or loft beds and they are probably most commonly seen in kids’ rooms (they have a certain novelty factor that children do seem to like) or where space for storage is at a premium, like in apartments.

Kids cabin beds will usually have a built-in ladder running up the side or end of the unit for easy access to the bed, above the storage compartments area. Alternatively they may have a built-in mini-staircase that leads up the end of the bed, with the steps doubling up as extra storage space. They will normally feature a safety rail or board along the side of the bed section to prevent falling out.

Nowadays they are made in a whole host of designs and targeted towards particular audiences – there will be pink ones or ones with storage areas shaped like a Wendy House aimed at young girls and blue ones with football or pirate designs built-in to the storage area for the boys. There will even be ones that have slides built in or shaped like boats – looking more like they belong in a theme park than in a bedroom! The creative and imaginative designs now available enhance the novelty value and it’s a good way to make your kids’ bedroom more attractive and playful.

Less frequently you will see full size, queen or king size cabin beds. Nowadays the mattress in these beds may be memory foam and, rather than the sleeping surface being raised a long way off the ground like a kids’ bed, it will be a much lower platform with typically 6 or 12 drawers built in to the sides.

Cabin beds are made of a variety of materials – most commonly wood (often pine or oak) is used and this may be lacquered, stained or colored with a variety of finishes nowadays; more expensive ones may be made of hardwood.

If you are looking to buy cabin beds the best place these days is online. Because you are buying this bed as much for the look as the comfort value you can check out many specialist sites online and search around the thumbnail pictures for the type you are after, comparing prices easily. Search with your child and include him or her in the process and you will get automatic buy-in!

Online at a specialist cabin or captain’s bed site you will also guarantee getting a good variety of cheap cabin beds. In the kids section of department stores you will find thee items but there will be less choice and they will be more expensive.

Mattress pads and covers used to be mainly about offering protection to the mattress so that warranty wasn’t invalidated by stains or signs of wear and tear. With mattress toppers becoming plusher and heated mattress pad sets now available they now play an important comfort role too, as well as protection.

Heated mattress pads are really a spin on the old electric blankets that were once popular. Whereas an electric blanket essentially integrated an electrical heating device inside a blanket that was usually placed over the top bed sheet, a heated mattress pad is something that will sit on top of the mattress, below the bottom bed sheet, so that it protects the mattress and warms the sleeping surface.

People have traditionally used heated beds for a variety of reasons. The obvious one is in cold climates it gives instant warmth to a bed you are climbing into; however, they are also used for health reasons – applying heat to muscles increases the blood flow and can aid in healing or with certain conditions like arthritis or back pain.

The older electric blankets (more than 10 years old) suffered from a reputation for lack of safety as well as being expensive to run – in the UK, an estimated 5,000 fires per year are caused by faulty electric blankets over 10 years old. However, the modern ones have carbon fiber wires and usually work on 24 volts (lower than the older ones.)

Modern heated mattress pads will usually be waterproof and come with one or two controls. They will be made in all the standard sizes that mattresses are made in. They may be fitted or non-fitted and the non-fitted ones can be tied to the corners of the mattress usually. They look much the same as a standard white, lightly quilted mattress pad or cover. Price wise, you can find these items on Amazon for $60 – $150 for a Twin. More advanced ones have more zones to the pad which can be individually controlled and these will be more expensive.

If you’ve ever been to one of their 39 US stores or shopped online at Ikea you will be aware of the type of household products they offer – value-for-money items made of good quality materials and stylish in design, that are often self-assembled and able to be carried home in the back of the car. The Ikea sofa bed collection is no different.

Ikea make quite an extensive range of sofa beds and sofa bed covers. The main ranges include the the Lovas which are $200-400,the Havet, which range in price from $300-500, the Murbo which are $250-350, the Resmpo which are $350-450, the Ektorp which are $650- 800, the Hagalund which are around $500, the Karlstad which are $800-900 and the Kivik which are $750 – $1010. You can see from this alone that there are many styles and choices available.

If we look at their most basic range and their most expensive range you should get an idea of the types of Ikea sofa beds available.

The Lovas range sofa beds are 78 3/4 “(2 meters) wide by 41 inches (just over a meter) deep and 35 7/8″ (91 cm) tall. They convert into a bed that is big enough for 2 sleepers. The bed’s frame is made of steel and it has 4 feet to raise it off the floor, made of polypropylene. These beds come with a simple, firm polyurethane foam mattress made from 1.7 lb/cu.ft foam that can be used every night and may be used with a mattress pad, which can be a good idea for extra protection from stains. In any case they come provided with a removable cotton cover that can be machine-washed and it may be an idea to get an extra cover for use while it’s being washed. All of these sofa beds are fire retardant.

The Kivik range of sofa-beds is more stylish than the Lovas range but is around 3 times the price. The extra benefits provided by these beds are extra width (around 96 1/2 ” sofa) allowing more seating space, with a soft, deep seat which provides comfortable back support – this seat may include a layer of 3.1 lb/cu.ft memory foam in some of the models. They also feature an easy fold out system for when the sofa will be used as a bed. Also the armrests include a smart storage system, with a zipped cover, so that you can keep your things hidden away! Some of them also come with a foot-stool. The frame of these sofa beds is made of fiberboard, particleboard, plywood and pine. Also provided is an easily removable, dry-clean only cotton cover for ease of maintenance.

In addition to the ranges mentioned and described above Ikea also stock chair beds which fold down into a single/twin bed.

A novel addition to all their ranges has been mounting the chair and sofa-beds on caster wheels, making moving very easy for cleaning or for re-locating to another room.

If you want to buy Ikea sofa bed units the best place to start is online, where they list some 12,000 products, but at some point it will be best to go to the store and check out comfort and support levels, both in sofa position and bed position.

Platform beds consist of only a firm, stable, horizontal base, on which a mattress sits; there is no need for a traditional box spring to sit on a frame and support a mattress, so it creates a 2-part bed rather than a 3-part set up. The base may be slatted or solid.

Platform beds actually pre-date the invention of the box-spring as every raised bed up to the invention of the box-spring in the 1860′s could be called a “platform bed”. Nowadays the bases are usually made of wood, metal or bamboo and may or may not include a headboard or footboard.

Modern style platform beds often take the European style of solid colors and simple, stylish, neutral designs. Those that include a headrest may use microfiber or leather padding which provides a comfortable backrest when sitting up in bed. Nowadays platform beds may also double up as storage furniture, with built-in drawers and compartments around the bed, below the raised mattress – these are popular where space is tight like in apartments.

A brief online search will point you towards many specialist sites where you can buy platform beds cheap. Not only will they be cheaper than in the bedding stores but you will probably get more choice as many sites will deal only in platform beds and will have efficient selection, order, payment and delivery procedures. Remember to check credentials of the retailer first and bear in mind that buying a bed is something that usually requires you testing the mattress out for comfort levels first, so buying on looks and promises alone involves many risks!

These sites should present many options for discount platform beds – made from wood, metal or upholstered models, both traditional and modern styles. Most of the wood ones in the US will be made from oak, maple, cherry, poplar or imported Bamboo; another popular type is the leather platform beds, which are very stylish. Asian platform beds are another style that is becoming more widespread, with the popularity of simple and neutral “peninsular style” furniture.

Size-wise you will find platform beds in all of the standard sizes that mattresses are made in, including California King. Prices will, as you would expect, vary greatly, according to sizes, materials and workmanship.

The Spring Air Company (known as Spring Air International since 2009) was founded in 1926, so it is one of the traditional US mattress manufacturers that have seen many of the ups and downs of the past 85 years. It has done more than survived – it has flourished and is ranked only behind Sealy, Serta and Simmons in the amount of mattresses it sells in the US. One of their claims to fame is that they introduced the Pillow-Top mattress to the bedding market in 1973. So, what are the main features of the Spring Air mattress ranges nowadays?

Spring Air mattresses are manufactured in 13 U.S. facilities and in 22 international facilities in 32 countries worldwide. Their main ranges are Nature’s Rest, Back Supporter, Four Seasons and Chattam and Wells and traditionally these mattresses are known for their free-end offset pocket coil design, which adjusts very well to body weight.

Starting with the BackSupporter line, these mattresses are built on a carbon neutral eco-friendly base with special reinforcement in the zoned center, where most of the body weight will rest. All the mattresses use the Spring Air pocket coils for body-conforming support, then in the upholstery layers Conforma foam that relieves pressure on shoulders and hips. The three main mattresses in this range are the Value Collection, featuring 400 coils and knit fabrics; the Perfect Balance 500 series, featuring 546 3-zone LFK springs and latex and memory foams in the comfort layers; and the Perfect Balance 700 series featuring a 768 5-zone Conforma Coil foam-encased design and memory foam and latex in the comfort layers. These mattresses all come with a 10-year non pro-rated warranty.

The BackSupporter range can be topped off with a SleepSense mattress topper for extra comfort. These come in 4 different materials – gel, latex, memory foam and SMT foam.

The Chattam and Wells collection is the luxury range from Spring Air, using the finest quality materials and hand craftsmanship. These mattresses use the 5-zone Conforma spring design which reduces pressure on the joints, then extra support is added for the lower back. The foam encasement provides extra stability and reinforcement for the edges. On top of the springs there is a thick layer of memory foam, providing its characteristic body-conforming comfort and temperature-responsiveness. The mattresses in the Chattam and Wells range are topped off using fabrics infused with silver to reduce static and repel dust-mites, Joma wool, cashmere and Talalay latex. The fine quality upholstery materials are inner-tufted throughout the main parts of the mattress. All mattresses in this collection come back by a 15 year non-prorated warranty.

Looking at these two collections above will give you a good idea of what you can expect if you are looking to buy spring air mattress sets. Clearly they are one of the US manufacturers offering a long history of quality products. Depending on size, materials used and design, your mattress will cost you anywhere from around $500 up to $2500.

You may have heard the term “trundle bed” in your mattress searches and wondered exactly what it is. Well, this article will clear that up and also show you where you can get your hands on one, if a trundle bed is truly for you!

Also known as truckle beds, trumple beds and hurly-beds, trundle beds are a pair of beds with one bed being able to be stored underneath the other, normally mounted on rollers or casters so that it can slide out when it is required. The “stored” bed will not have a mattress and will be just the frame/base of the bed; the mattress will need to be added. The main bed will usually be a twin size and the one underneath slightly smaller so that it can be neatly stored.

Trundle beds, like bunk beds, air mattresses or futon beds, fall into the broad category of space-saving and temporary bedding solutions, as they allow for a second bed to be made as needed, without taking up any floor-space normally. However, they are probably the least popular out of all the types of temporary bedding mentioned there.

Cheap trundle beds are an idea for a guest room that is pushed for space and is normally meant to host one guest, but occasionally needs bedding for a second guest. Sometimes the lower trundle bed can even “pop up” to the same height as the main twin bed, forming one double bed. Again this is a good feature in a guest room that may sometimes need to provide bedding for a couple but is not large enough to have a permanent double bed set up.

Another space-saving feature of the trundle bed is that the lower bed, because it has no mattress, can be used as storage drawer when it is not in use as a bed – a good feature for small apartments where every space-saving idea is to be welcomed.

Sometimes nowadays day-beds double up as trundle beds. A good example of these types of beds can be found at the Ikea online store where there are several model available in the Hemnes, Meldal and Tromso ranges. The high-end model sells for around $500 and is a solid pine bed that can be used as a sofa, a single bed, a bed for two or a storage area, depending on preferences.

At other specialist online stores you can buy trundle beds in many other designs. As well as those already mentioned they have bunk beds which are also trundle beds (so 3 beds in all), full size trundle beds and trundle beds made especially for girls. Prices vary greatly depending on the design and materials you choose – from a couple of hundred dollars to well over a thousand dollars, so it’s difficult to generalize.

Shopping for a King Size bed? You wouldn’t be the first shopper to get their brand new upgraded mattress home only to find it fitted a little too snugly in the bedroom – meaning that there was no space to walk around it as it stretched from one side of the room to the other! It’s important therefore, to get the standard king size bed dimensions and all the possible variations clear in your head before you buy.

It depends where you buy your king size bed, but in North America and Australia the standard king (sometimes also called as Eastern King) will measure 76 inches wide × 80 inches long. On the west coast of the US there is another common size called the California King which is longer and narrower than the standard king at 72 inches × 84 inches. In the US a standard King may have a king-size box-spring base or two smaller box-springs side by side to support it.

Whichever King model you choose in North America it is going to be 12 to 16 inches wider than the average queen size so take care that your bedroom is large enough to handle the increased size without making it seem cramped.

In the UK and Ireland the King size mattress is around the same size as the North American queen size (there is no queen size in the UK.) It measures around 60 inches in width by 80 inches in length. The wider 72 inches × 84 inches mattress is called the Super King.

It would be far too simple for all single mattresses to be the same size – after all this is the world of bedding where things are rarely simple! If you are looking to but a single mattress it depends where in the world you are as to what size you will be getting.

In the US the single mattress is usually referred to as a Twin – it sounds less lonely perhaps? The North American standard size of the Twin is 39 inches wide × 75 inches long; in Australia it measures 36 inches × 74 inches; in the UK it will be 36 inches × 75 inches and in Continental Europe and Latin America it will be 35.4 in × 79 in. So there are some slight variations even to the so-called standard single or standard twin.

Then it gets more complicated as there are non-standard single sizes. In North America there is the extra long twin which is 39 inches × 80 inches and the very rare three quarter which measures 48 inches × 75 inches .There is also the wider and longer Super Single (48 inches × 84 inches) which is like a 4ft bed.

In the UK the non-standard single mattresses are the small single, which measures 30 inches x 72 inches and the three quarter (which can be considered a large single or a small double) at 48 inches x 75 inches. The latter is not very common at all.

In mainland Europe there are yet more other sizes, such as the small single which is narrower than the standard single, the extra small single which is narrower again and the large single which is wider than the average single ( but close the US standard Twin.)

Are you confused yet? Don’t worry too much. If you are shopping around for a cheap single mattress the likelihood is that the standard sizes in your country will be the ones on offer, but it is a good habit anyway to be aware of all the sizes available and to check both the labels on your mattress and the size of your room before buying.

The Sealy Corporation, based in North Carolina, is the largest manufacturer of mattresses in the world and they presently operate 25 bedding plants in the US. They take their name from Sealy, Texas, where they started out in the late 1800′s in the cotton industry. Through the years they have seen many booms and dips and still survived to tell the tale – more than that, in fact; they have flourished. This says something about the strength of the brand and the reputation they have built for affordable quality mattresses that use great materials and great know-how in their design. What are the main types of Sealy beds available today?

Sealy sell most of their mattresses under the brand names Posturepedic, Stearns and Foster (which they acquired in 1983) and Bassett, as well as Sealy. You may also be familiar with the Embody brand name which is their most recent addition.

Over the years Sealy have achieved something of a name for innovation and so it was when they unveiled the first ever King size bed and when the Sealy Posturepedic mattress was released.

The Posturepedic remains the flagship product of the Sealy brand and it has had many incarnations in the 65 years it’s been on the market. The Posturepedic has a great reputation for quality because of its longevity, yet a queen size is available from around $600. There are, of course, many options available that add to the cost if you take them, but for a famous household name mattress Sealy beds prices are very reasonable.

The Posturepedic is an innerspring mattress that comes in two basic choices of continuous coil: single stage and dual stage coils. The latter is the more advanced design, affording deeper comfort and support to the sleeper right through the mattress. It starts at around $900 for a queen size. Virtually all Posturepedic mattresses come with LiftRight Handles that make movement and turning of the mattress easier, as well as changing the sheets. The more advanced the model, the more advanced and extensive the handles will be.

Other common features to all Posturepedic mattresses include the CoreSupport system which reinforces the central one third of the mattress which supports most of the body weight, reinforced foam edges that reduce bounce and add support to the mattress as well as helping it to stand the test of time, plus a rubberized foundation cover that prevents the mattress from slipping.

When you buy your Posturepedic mattress you have the choice of bases, some of which are adjustable. You also have the choice of adding memory foam or latex to the comfort layers of the mattress.

We have concentrated here on the Posturepedic as it is their most famous inner-spring bed, but there are cheap Sealy beds available in their Sealy range. These start at $400 for a queen size. There are also the luxury inner-spring beds from the well established Stearns and Foster range which start at $1200for a queen size and come with a full 10-year warranty.

If you are considering a luxury foam Sealy model then you will look at the Embody mattresses, which use progressive latex and memory foams in their design and start at around $2000 for a queen. They have a 20-year limited warranty.

Ikea have 39 of their home products superstores dotted around the USA, representing their second biggest market after Germany. Since the 1980′s they have built a name for largely self-assembled furniture made to a good standard at very affordable prices. Their bedding products are no exception and here we take a look at the Ikea mattress choices that you have.

You can find a full listing of Ikea products on their web site, where there are roughly 12,000 products. In terms of Ikea mattresses they are split into 3 main types – the basic inner-spring models, the standard foam models and then the luxury foam models.

The inner-spring models start at an incredibly low $80 and go up to around $250 (including base.) There are two main types – the standard Bonell coil design and the active response or pocket spring design. The cheaper Bonell coil mattresses will have between 170 and 270 Bonell coils in a twin size mattress and will provide adequate, if not luxurious, comfort and support for most people. These mattresses will be around 17cms thick.

The active response coils in the more expensive pocket spring mattresses, such as the Sultan Hallen model, help with increased support and spinal alignment as well containing motion so that movements in bed are more isolated and not transferred to your partner. These are thicker mattresses (around 24cms) that also use more polyurethane foam in the comfort layers above the springs.

Some of the mattresses are sold separately and some as a set with a base. For those sold separately – like the $80 spring model called the Jaren – you can buy a slatted wooden base to position the mattress on. Most of the cheaper models are roll packed for portability and will regain their proper shape in around 3 to 4 days, so bear this in mind when you get your mattress home.

The standard polyurethane foam models that you may see featured in Ikea mattress reviews online – like the Sultan Fonnes and the Sultan Florvag – are very reasonably priced at around $100-150. These are basic mattresses 10-12cm thick, using Polyurethane foam of 1.4 lb/cu.ft or 1.5 lb/cu.ft density. Most of these mattresses are reversible so that you can use both sides for even wear and tear, and they will be roll-packed when you buy them. You will need to buy a slatted base separately.

The higher quality foam mattresses will user high-resilient polyurethane foam, memory foam or latex and these range in price from $200-700, depending on the type of foam used. The specifications of the foams they use are clearly marked, even on the web site, so it’s easy to check densities and compositions. Ikea even state clearly the percentages of natural and artificial latex that are included in their latex models. This is a refreshing change from some manufacturers who seem to do their best to conceal this information.

Most Ikea mattresses come with a 25 year limited warranty, which is amazing given their value-for-money price. If money is tight and you don’t need the finest quality hand-made mattress with all the trimmings and silky fabrics to finish it off, you could do a lot worse than browse through the Ikea collections.

If you’re buying your mattress and base separately rather than as a unit, you may need to research where you can get hold of well-made cheap bed frames. What type of bed frame you are after will, of course, depend on what type of mattress you have.

The bed frame, sometimes called the bed stead, is what the mattress will sit on when it’s in position. They are usually made of wood or metal and will include several components – the head, the foot and the side rails. Larger double or queen beds and up, will need some central support system also because of the extra weight they will have to support.

Nowadays the household name retailers will stock a selection of bed frames and you can buy them in-store or online. Their price will vary greatly depending on size, material and level of workmanship and it’s never a good idea to buy solely on price as this item will be the foundation of your sleeping system in your bedroom. If your bed frame is poor quality then it will collapse and it doesn’t matter how good your mattress is.

Ikea is a retailer that specializes in good quality cheap bed frames and mattresses. Checking their online store you can pick up a Fjellse slatted bed frame for $50 – this is a stylish pine wood frame that is around will support a double/full size mattress ( 53 inches wide by 74.5 inches long.)

The Ikea Malm range is very popular and these sell for between $100 and $250. These have adjustable sides to support different mattress heights, making them very flexible. These frames use particleboard and fiberboard with a galvanized steel midbeam for extra support.

Of course if you are looking for a well-made cheap bed frame we have only scratched the surface here of the type of models available. Many other manufacturers have a multitude of different designs and styles for you to research. Naturally, if you have a different type of mattress – like a waterbed mattress, air mattress or futon – you will be looking for an entirely different bed frame to what we have described above and these can normally be found at the specialist online retailers.

Ikea, the Swedish company that operates all around the world and is, in fact the world’s largest furniture seller, has been in the US since the 1980′s and it represents one of their most important markets; there are 37 stores in the USA. Mattresses and beds are a big part of the 12,000 products that they include on their web site and here we take a look at the range of Ikea futons available.

Like with most of their products Ikea makes futons that are easy to assemble, pleasing on the eye and good value for money. Most of them are in the form of a sofa-bed, which acts as both a place to sleep and a place to sit, making them not only a great cost-saving item ( no need to buy an extra spare bed for visitors) but they can also save on valuable floor-space in tight apartments.

A typical Ikea futon will be priced between $300 and $800 and will be designed for ease of positioning and ease of folding down when used as a bed, as well as appealing to many different design tastes – evidenced by the wide array of designs and covers available for the futon.

Nowadays it can be quite difficult to tell a sofa bed apart from a plush 3-seater sofa, such is the comfort level of sofa-beds. The more expensive Ikea ones – such as those in the Ektorp range – look and feel like a normal sofa. They are 2 meters wide, a meter deep and around 90cm tall and they convert into a comfortable full size bed. The frame is made of steel and the 4 3/8″ thick high-resilience polyurethane foam mattress provides the necessary comfort and support whether sleeping or sitting. When the sofa-bed is used as a bed, the head section can be turned up to provide a convenient rest for watching TV or reading. These beds come with a machine-washable cotton removable cover – this is important as sofa-beds usually have to stand up to a lot more wear and tear than normal beds, especially as many people eat and drink on their sofas. Many people like to use their Ikea futon bed with a mattress pad that protects it even further.

The Ikea PS Havet futon beds are their mid-range option. Some of them are narrower than the plusher 2-meter Ektorp models, but can still be used a full size bed for two people. They still have a steel frame and you have the option of choosing a high-resilience foam and latex mattress to conform to body shape. This mattress is strong enough to be used every night. The other interesting feature of this range is that the whole bed is mounted on caster wheels, which makes it extremely easy to move between rooms or when you are cleaning.

Like much Ikea furniture, the futon beds are self-assemble models. Usually there will be a simple Alan Key- based assemble procedure that is detailed in the accompanying manual. You shouldn’t need to call the professionals!

Anyone claiming in a mattress review that a particular mattress is the best bed for bad backs probably needs to be treated with caution because this is still a contentious issue and most people are simply not qualified to comment.

To be brutally honest, what type of mattress you should sleep on if you are unlucky enough to suffer back pain will be a matter that you should discuss with your doctor or chiropractor and not with the marketing people of a particular web site.

In the US acute lower back pain (lumbago) is the fifth most common reason to visit the doctor and 90% of adults will experience back pain at some point in their life. So it is a huge problem and it’s not surprising that mattress manufacturers have targeted this large group of people in their advertising campaigns and their marketing claims, but we need to be aware of who’s doing the recommending of the “best bed for back pain” and on what authority.

I think what we can safely say is that a mattress that doesn’t provide adequate support for your back may harm it and can significantly worsen aches and pains or cause spinal misalignment in some cases. In addition to this a mattress not giving enough support will probably be quite uncomfortable and will affect your sleep, which can upset your overall health and well-being in other ways. All of this seems to be undisputed amongst doctors and chiropractors. The question is what type of mattress provided the best support and there we have some divergences of opinion.

For many years it was recommended that a firm (but not hard) mattress was the best type of mattress for back pain, even being reported as such at the 1996 Orthopedic Convention. However, a 2003 study by Spanish doctors for the Kovacs Foundation has challenged this thinking, concluding that a medium firm mattress was best for mitigating back pain. Tests showed it was more effective than a firm mattress at improving pain in the lower back.

This type of study may point to a conclusion that makes sense, but you will only really know the best mattress for you by testing some models out in store. As for everyone, choosing a mattress is a personal decision, or one you make with your partner; you will get the best results by putting in the necessary time to research and test as many as you can personally. This will give you the best experience possible of the types of support levels and comfort levels provided by inner-spring mattresses memory foam or latex models, as well as multiple manufacturers and qualities of workmanship. Many factors go into choosing a mattress – when you suffer from back pain it becomes even more important to consider them all.

When you test the mattresses out it is recommended that you do so with your partner, if you are going to be sharing your mattress, as the weight on the other side of the bed will affect both partner’s sleeping experience. Also, don’t forget to try many sleeping positions – don’t just lie there on your back and think ‘this feels nice”; lie on your side, lie on the other side, lie on your front.

Clete A. Kushida, MD, PhD, who is a spokesperson for the American Association of Sleep Medicine recommends that, when you lie on your side, “If your shoulders and hips are sinking, if you feel your spine is not aligned, it’s probably too soft. If you feel pain and discomfort, it’s probably too firm.”

Nowadays some manufacturers and retailers offer a 30-night trial or similar, so it is possible to take a mattress home, try it out for a month and then exchange or get a refund on it, if it doesn’t work out. This is a great way to minimize your risk and it will give you a chance to test the mattress much more thoroughly than in the store.

Finally, it is important to keep your mattress in tip-top condition anyway, but even more so if you suffer from back pain. It is a good idea to turn your mattress 180 degrees every 6 months to ensure even wear and tear; if your mattress is not non-flip, then turning it over every now and again is a good idea too.

Sears Mattresses are retailed by Sears, Roebuck and Co. – the same company famous for its mail order retail set up beginning and then its chain of high-end department stores that have been helping Americans part with their hard-earned cash for over a hundred years since they were formed in Minnesota in 1893. They merged with Kmart in 2004, you may have read about it.

Even today there are 926 full-size Sears stores in the United States. That’s a lot of outlets to sell their mattresses and other home goods in! So what can you expect from a Sears mattress if you decide to buy one?

We should first point out that if you go to the online Sears/Kmart store or a physical bricks and mortar store you will find mattresses from many manufacturers being sold, not just Sears own brand. Even a cursory glance will show you they have Kingsdown mattresses, Laura Ashley, Serta, Simmons and Sealy mattresses available.

The most popular and widely seen Sears mattress is the Sears-o-Pedic, which is actually made by Sealy and is very similar to their signature Posturepedic mattresses they make, which have been gracing showroom floors for over 60 years now in the US. It is available only at Sears.

If we look at the Sears-O-Pedic 3141SS for example, this is a pocket coil mattress which uses 1008 coils in its queen size version. It is a non-flip mattress, with 360 degree Foam Encased Support to reinforce the edges. The thickness of the mattress is 10 inches and the Upholstery layers include latex foam. This mattress is available for around $1300 for a queen.

This is a typical, mid-range Sears mattress. Higher in the range you will have basically similar components but the coil count will be higher and the comfort materials will vary. Similarly, lower in the range models will have a lower coil count and either less latex or a different type of foam. Prices also vary because of the top of the mattress – whether it’s Euro-Top, Pillow-Top, Tight-Top or Cushion-Firm, for example.

When shopping online it makes sense to check out some Sears mattress reviews if you’re serious about buying one of these items, or you want some independent opinion before visiting one of their stores. You may have to hunt around a little more than normal, as they are one of the lesser reviewed quality mattresses out there.

Cribs for babies are one of those items that you will want to spend some time on when shopping, as they will need to meet safety requirements and you will need to put your baby’s health and safety right at the top of considerations. It makes careful research and checking of bed choices a lot more important than when shopping for a normal bed for yourself.

There are two components of baby cribs – the actual crib and the mattress that sits inside it. They may be sold separately or you may buy them together.

The crib will be designed to restrict your baby to the bed. They will usually have steep sides with no footholds that might allow the baby to climb and they will need to ensure that there are no areas where the hands and feet can become caught. The US Government now sets out guidelines for the manufacture of these cribs, making them a lot safer than before, but you should still make sure personally that the one you are buying complies in all respects, especially if you are buying your crib online, from anywhere else other than a recognized retailer or from outside the US.

The basic checks that you can do before buying include ensuring that the vertical slats going round the crib are no more than 2 and 3/8 of an inch apart to prevent anything getting trapped between them; making sure that the bars are sturdy and cannot be dislodged; making sure the distance between the top of the side and the top of the mattress is no less than 9 inches when the side is lowered and no less than 26 inches when it is in raised position.

Baby cribs are usually made of wood – like oak – or cast iron. Nowadays they are available in a large range of colors and designs so that it’s not all serious when shopping for a crib – it can satisfy those design urges you have too! Some examples of designs include the Jenny Lind, the Sleigh, the Mini-crib, the Rocking crib, the Convertible crib (these can be converted into a standard bed as your baby gets older), the Round crib and the Cribs for Twins.

If you are buying your mattress separately there are some basic things to look for there too. Make sure that when your mattress is in place in the crib the gap between the edge of the mattress and the crib sides is no more than the width of 2 fingers; this means that you must get a mattress that is a tight fit for your crib – although they are advertised as “standard” sizes they may vary and the best thing to do is use a tape measure to give yourself peace of mind that they match. “Standard” crib mattresses should be 51 and 5/8 inches by 27 and 1/4 inches – if they differ from this you may run into problems.

Also, when choosing the mattress for your crib, ensure that it is not too soft. You will want one that cannot be bent in two, or it will be too soft and may endanger your baby by creating suffocation pockets.

Choose a mattress that has absolutely no chance of harming your baby with toxicity – that may mean a 100% organic or natural mattress, but read the labels carefully as some of them may use natural materials like cotton, wool and latex, but treat the materials with chemicals to make the mattress waterproof, fire-resistant or anti-bacterial.

The best cribs for babies tick all of the safety boxes we have described above, as SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is still a reality and claims around 50 deaths per year in the US. There are also 9000 infant bed-related injuries per year!

Don’t forget, if you are looking for cheap cribs for babies that, very quickly, your baby will be a toddler. Apart from all the safety considerations you need to make, you may want to think about “upping” your budget to buy a crib that is going to be strong enough to stand up to a bouncing baby of a year old standing in his crib that has now become a playpen and throwing a tantrum! Investing in a quality crib bed and a quality mattress will be well worth the peace of mind and the durability you get from them. Also, who’s to say that you won’t be using the crib again in the future as you get new additions to the family?!!!

Ikea have been around in the US since the 1980′s but perhaps have not had quite the name that they have enjoyed in western and northern Europe. They make a huge range of home improvement products from self-assemble cabinets through lighting to rugs and bedding. Here we will take a look at the Ikea beds to show you what you can expect from their range.

The first thing you notice about Ikea beds and mattresses is that they are at the low end of the pricing spectrum. You can pick up one of their simple mattresses online for under $100. Even their most expensive latex models will not be above $700 if you are buying online. Even at these prices they are slightly more expensive than what you would pay for the same items in the UK.

Ikea mattresses basically fall into 3 main types: the inner-spring models, the low-end foam models and the higher-end latex and memory foam models.

The spring models include ones like the Jaren or the Sultan Harestua and the Sultan Huglo use basic Bonell spring coils while the higher-end Sultan Hogla uses active response coils which are individually-encased pocket springs.

There a few very basic foam mattresses from Ikea that use varying qualities of polyurethane foam in the 1.4 to 2.2 lb/cu.ft. density range. They are reversible, can be rolled away and have removable machine-washable covers so that they are easy to use, store and maintain.

The higher-end foam mattresses in their Sultan range include those using memory foam and both synthetic and natural latex foam. The memory foam Ikea use is not particularly dense, at 3.1 lb/cu.ft., and is mixed with other “high-density” foam in their models to provide the comfort layers, but the mattresses are designed to represent value for money rather than the height of luxurious comfort.

If you want to look at complete Ikea beds rather than just mattresses you will find in their stores and online many choices of twin, king, queen and full size beds as well as loft beds and bunk beds, day beds and guest beds. The standard beds will usually consist of the bed frame and a slatted base on which the mattress will sit; the bases will be made of pine wood, steel, particleboard or ABS plastic.

The most popular size of mattress for couples in the US is easily the queen size, but there are a few variations in queen size mattress dimensions to be aware of if your are shopping for one of these items.

In North America and Australia the standard queen size bed size is 60 inches wide × 80 inches long (152 cm × 203 cm.) In the UK the queen size doesn’t even exist and instead the closest mattress size is called a King and measures 60 inches wide × 78 inches long (150 cm × 200 cm.) In Continental Europe and Latin America the queen is different again at 63 inches × 79 inches. Any mattress you buy in the US should be clearly marked in US sizes.

In North America there are a couple of rare variations on queen size bed measurements. There is the Olympic queen, which is wider than the standard queen, measuring 66 inches wide × 80 inches long. This is a novelty size by Simmons. Then there is the California queen at 60 inches × 84 inches, which is a longer Queen, but is hardly ever seen these days.

If you are upgrading your mattress from a Full size to a queen you will need to pay close attention to what are the measurements of a queen size bed, because you will want to ensure your room is big enough to handle the larger mattress. This may sound obvious but some people do get caught out by the extra width of the queen size. A minute with a tape measure is time well-invested!

The size of queen size bed sets is most suitable and convenient for couples who like their space but want to remain intimate enough to not feel like you’re sleeping on opposite sides of the room, as can happen with a king size mattress!

The Sleep Number bed, made by Select Comfort and sold in their retail outlets across the country, has been heavily advertised over the years and, since it came onto the market in the late 1980′s, has made a name for itself as one of the leading adjustable beds sold in the US. But what are some of the Sleep Number Bed problems that get fed back from users?

The Sleep Number collection includes 9 main mattresses in 3 different lines and they range in price from around $1000 to $4500 for a queen set. Basically a Sleep Number bed is remote controlled and uses a setting number between 1 and 100 which represents the owners’ ideal combination of mattress comfort, firmness and body support. The remote controls, which are normally wireless nowadays, work by inflating or deflating the air chambers on either side of the mattress. The design of the bed has the air chamber between 2 support foam layers, then a comfort foam pad on top and a cover. Some of the higher range models will use memory foam and they will have thicker comfort pads.

The Sleep Number beds are easy to assemble and use no tools. They all come with a 20-year limited warranty and a 30-Night trial.

As we trawl through the review sites the main Sleep Number bed complaints relate to the air chambers. Some people say that the foam strip that separates the two air-chambers in the middle of the mattress is uncomfortable and makes sex difficult. Some users say they experienced a roll towards the center of the mattress, but this was more so with users who had settings vastly different on one side to the other. Others said that the mattress lost air itself over time; still others said that their Sleep Number setting was influenced by external factors such as atmospheric conditions and could vary significantly on hot days to cold days.

Other problems voiced were that the bed is noisy when inflating or deflating – to be honest this is fairly normal for air mattresses in general – and that the bed is expensive.

Sleep Number Bed complaints are not particularly plentiful as these beds generally stack up well with the best on the market. They rate well for painless sleeping, longevity and motion isolation and, of course, the adjustability means that the comfort level is generally perceived as excellent because it can be changed according to the desired level of firmness.

Sealy are old and big! If you are looking for a mattress then you will likely come across a few of their mattresses in your excursions. They are the largest maker of mattresses in the world and have been around since 1881, when they were formed in Sealy, Texas, so they know a bit about mattress making and how to please their customers. They are well known for their Posturepedic mattress which has been one of the most popular innerspring mattresses for many decades, but here we look at what you can expect from a Sealy foam mattress.

The major foam range from Sealy is the Embody range. The mattresses use high quality memory foam and latex foam to provide a sleep surface that is both highly comfortable and highly supportive, also allowing for proper airflow and temperature regulation. The cell structure of the memory foam Sealy use is open enough to allow air to circulate and the mattresses are topped off with Body Climate fabrics that keep moisture from getting to the mattress and aid breath-ability – which is an important word to Sealy. The foam is also anti-microbial, resistant to dust mites, allergens and microbes.

The Embody memory foam and latex foam line includes four different styles of mattress starting at $1999 for a Queen set. They are available in all the standard sizes including California King .The higher up the range you go, the larger amounts of memory foam and latex are used.

Caring for your new mattress will mean allowing it to air properly before use, so that the odors dissipate. You will want to use a mattress cover with it to avoid stains that will invalidate the 20-year warranty and keep your mattress in tip-top condition. You will not need to flip the mattress as its comfort layers are on one sides only, but rotating it will help to even out the high pressure usage areas of the mattress.

If Conservative Talk show hosts Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are to be believed Sleep Number beds, from Select Comfort, are fit for a King. We take a look at some Sleep Number reviews to see if all the marketing is right!

Sleep Number beds have been around since the late 1980′s when they were introduced as the adjustable and program-able bed. Almost 25 years later they’re still going strong and the fundamental design has remained roughly the same. It still utilizes the air chamber set between two layers of support form above the foundation, with a comfort layer of foam and a cover over the mattress. This is all controlled by the Firmness Control system that will nowadays be a wireless remote control connected to an inflating or deflating device. The Sleep Number system allows the sleeper to select a firmness level number between 1 and 100 which should provide the same level of firmness at all times and allows for two different settings on either side of the bed, customizing the mattress for couples.

When you buy a Sleep Number you will get a 30-night trial and a 20-year warranty. The bed is assembled without the need for tools. Without going through them all there are 8 main mattresses in 3 different ranges – the main differences being the thickness of the comfort layers and the remote control systems.

The main Sleep Number bed reviews we came across reported great owner satisfaction in general. One site that monitored feedback from 1500 owners reported 78% customer satisfaction, rating especially well for longevity, motion isolation and overall comfort – which are 3 of the most important categories.

The main complaints were about the center of the bed where some people reported being able to feel the foam padded joint between the two air chambers; some people also reported a downwards roll towards the center, but this problem seemed to be worse in couples that had vastly different settings on the two sides of the bed. People who had similar settings didn’t point to this as an issue. The other main issues were with the bed gradually losing air and fluctuating in firmness levels because of atmospheric conditions, temperature or body-weight.

For those just starting out on their mattress-hunting journey you may come across the term “visco-elastic mattress” and wonder what on earth it is. Well, don’t worry – it’s a fancy name for “memory foam” and we will take you through a bit about what memory foam is and how it is used right here.

Visco-elastic is a polyurethane-based foam that is mixed with additional chemicals to increase its density and viscosity (which basically means its resistance.) It is totally man-made. The properties that make it good for use in mattresses are its softening in response to body heat, the way in which it envelops the body by molding to its contours and then returns to its original shape once the weight is removed.

If you are just starting to search for a new mattress you wills see many “memory foam” mattresses being advertised and you will need to exercise some caution and do your research before buying. The material was first developed by NASA in the 1960′s for their astronauts to use as a highly shock-absorbing foam, helping to ease some of the pressures on the body from the extreme forces exerted during take off. A company called Tempurpedic spent many years developing the material for use in bedding after it was released to the public domain and introduced the first Tempurpeduic Swedish mattresses onto the US market in the 1990′s. These are high quality memory foam models that get the response from the foam that people read about and which has popularized these mattresses recently. However, not all memory foam mattresses you will finds are of comparable quality.

The thing is that the quality of memory foam and its suitability as a springy, cushioning and supportive mattress material is greatly affected by its composition. Cheaper methods of production have made the mattresses more widely affordable but in some cases, quality has suffered. When shopping for these items you will need to check several things apart from how the mattress actually feels when you lie on it. Look out on the labels for the amount of memory foam used, the IFD rating and the density rating.

First things first – anything less than 2 inches of memory foam probably isn’t going to achieve much so make sure there is adequate amounts of the material used in your mattress. More than 6 inches would usually make it too soft and it would also be expensive.

Next the firmness of the mattress is measured by its IFD rating – this stands for Indentation Force Deflection and basically tells you how much pressure needs to be exerted on the mattress to make a 1 inch dent in the foam. This will vary from around 10 to 16, with 10 being the softest and 16 the firmest.

Some people feel that the IFD is less important than the density rating of the mattress in determining how soft, firm or generally how comfortable a model is. A higher IFD foam, with a lower density, may feel soft when weight is put on it. The density will be measured in pounds per cubic foot and the best mattresses will be 5 or above.

The last factor that affects the quality of visco elastic is the cell structure. A more open cell structure of the foam allows air to circulate, keeping the mattress cooler and allowing air to circulate – this is generally healthier for the mattress and the sleeper than one which traps the air or maybe traps odors too, as is more likely in a closed cell structure.

You can see from the above that, when you chose your visco elastic mattress, you will need to find the right combination of height, density and composition to give you the lasting qualities you are looking for. Read the labels and check the specs carefully!

The “Sleep for Life” mattress is an alternative name for the “Sleep to Live” mattress range which is made by Kingsdown – one of America’s oldest and most established manufacturers. Unlike Serta or Simmons, Kingsdown is a small, independent company that has always mixed quality craftsmanship with innovation and the Sleep for Life mattresses demonstrate this perfectly.

Sleep for Life is the name of the Kingsdown body diagnostics system that they have developed which allows them to take 18 different measurements from your body, ask a series of questions about how you sleep, then make over 1000 calculations to suggest the perfect mattress for your body. Once this has been determined Kingsdown will then supply a box spring mattress from its Sleep to Live 200, 400, 600 or 800 series to match your needs. So this traditional box-spring mattress manufacturer that has been making mattresses for over a century, is also at the forefront of innovation, using technology to design a mattress that is tailored to your specific body.

The crux of the Sleep for Life philosophy is to address two basic factors that affect a good night’s sleep : providing a mattress that gives correct posture support and gives ample pressure relief for your unique body.

The 200 Series mattresses include independent sleeping zones for both partners to minimize disturbance between couples when sleeping. They have semi-rigid foundation for correct support and comfort layers that ease the pressure on the body. They come with a 15 year warranty.

The 400 series includes a high end knit-cover that increases breathe-ability and a torsion box spring which is designed as a shock absorber and to assist with pressure relief. This carries a 20-year warranty.

The 600 and 800 series are even higher-end mattresses and carry a lifetime warranty. They include memory foam which responds to the body’s shape and temperature and enhances comfort and pressure relief. Both mattresses use a zoned torsion box spring which helps with lessening pressure.

The best place to buy a mattress may be online, but only if you have first tested it out – either at a friend’s house or in an actual store.

Mattresses, like clothing, are one of those things that are a very personal type of purchase…we like to feel the fabric on a pair of jeans, make sure it fits right and we might try countless pairs before finding one that fits perfectly. The same applies to a mattress: a pocket-spring one will feel different to a continuous coil spring mattress; a memory foam or latex foam mattress will feel different again. We need to try before we buy and that may mean checking 15 or 20 different mattresses until we find the right blend of size, softness, support, motion isolation and luxuriousness of the finishing fabric.

Don’t forget that if you are buying a mattress to share with your partner it’s important for you both to try the beds out together, as that will be the case in the real situation at home. It’s impossible to judge a mattress that 2 people will be sleeping on by just testing yourself.

Once you have found a few mattresses that suit you a good trick is to make a careful note of the specifications – not forgetting to note the finish you prefer as most leading mattress lines give you a choice of finishes from pillow-top through to extra firm – and then try to find the mattress discounted online at one of the many mattress retailers around. If so you can go ahead and order, pay and arrange delivery online in full confidence that it is going to meet all your requirements, because you’ve already put it to the acid test.

Buying mattresses is one of those things that is a touchy-feely type of experience, much like buying clothes. We don’t feel comfortable buying shirts or jeans that we haven’t tried on first or know the exact size of, because we are not sure they’ll fit or feel right. With a mattress we will hopefully be sleeping cheek to cheek with it night after night for the next ten years or so, making it important that it feels right. That usually means testing it out first. It is possible to buy mattresses online and still be successful but there are some steps we need to go through first.

The first and most important step is to know what we are looking for. If we don’t know what we’re after it’s easy to get lead by price alone – we see a bargain on one of the online stores and end up buying it because the price is great, even if it may not match what we are looking for. This is not the way to buy.

First you must assess exactly what you are after. What size do you want? If you are upgrading have you measured the size of the room to make sure it will accommodate a larger model? What materials and support systems do you prefer – inner-springs, memory foam, latex? Do you prefer a firm, medium-firm, plush or extra-plush finish? Do you just want the mattress or an entire bed set? Is it for the main bedroom, kids’ room or spare room? Does it have to be a conventional mattress or could you look at a futon or air bed? Do you suffer from any allergies that may be affected by your mattress? Do you suffer back pain? The list goes on… there are many considerations you need to make before buying. Make sure you know what you want.

The next thing to do is to head for a few bedding stores to try some mattresses out. You may have already checked online and been drawn towards certain manufacturers that you like the sound of. Try them out in the store and make a note of the model names/numbers and prices, together with the type of finish that felt good for you.

Once you have a few “contenders” go back online and start hunting around to see if you can get discount prices on the exact models with the exact specifications you liked the feel of in the store. You may be lucky and get a bargain; either way the price should be cheaper than in the store. Just make sure that you find a retailer that has a good reputation and great selection, ordering, payment and delivery processes, as well as a customer service center that can assist you if you have any problems. That way you should have your chosen mattress winging its way to your doorstep in no time!

Hypnos Beds come from quite a heritage. The UK company has been making quality pocket spring beds for over a century and while many things have had to change for them to stay competitive, they still retain the commitment to high standards of hand craftsmanship and use of the finest materials to make their beds highly sought after. If you are considering one of their beds it is a substantial investment, so you will probably want to check some Hypnos Beds reviews online to see what the pluses and minuses are. Well, here we’ll take you through what Hypnos offer and what you can expect.

First up, all Hypnos beds are sold as uniquely hand-crafted and they back their claims of quality up with a 10-year warranty. Every Hypnos bed is bespoke – that is, it is hand-made to measure. Moreover, Hypnos are very proud of the fact that they supply the British Royal Family and have received a Royal Warrant from the Queen, which is a mark of excellence and quality. Their mattresses are found in homes, plush hotels and fine resorts and in palaces.

The standard Hypnos bed will consist of the divan and mattress. The divan can be shallow or deep and will be hand-made and adorned with your choice of fabric, be it a fine cord or faux suede. You even get to choose the type of feet on the bed. The mattress will be a pocket-spring model, designed to conform to your body and relieve pressure points. Each pocket spring moves independently, meaning that the mattress is able to mold excellently to the body, supporting the spine and back well. The pocket-springs vary by the number of active turns in them – the more active turns the better the spring’s ability to react to the individual body weight that is applied. The two choices are the Hypnos ReActive pocket springs, which have up to 8 active turns and the newer UltraSens pocket springs, which have up to 14 active turns for an even better response to vertical downward pressure. These pocket springs also assist with air-flow around the mattress, making it breathe better and retain better hygiene and ventilation in the bed.

You may have heard of some of the main Hypnos Beds. They fall into four main collections: the Regency Collection is the most luxurious, featuring the Sandringham, the St James and the Hampton beds; the Heritage collection featuring 6 different beds using the new UltraSens pocket spring system; the Pillowtop collection featuring the Sublime, the Elite, the Superior and the Prestige; and the Orthos Support Collection, which is arrange of firmer beds for back support. Hypnos also has an adjustable bed collection and some space-saving beds with hidden drawers, as well as bedstead mattresses which are sold separately.

All Hypnos mattresses are double-sided apart from those in the Pillow Top Collection, which is one-sided, with no need to turn them.

Hypnos also provide the option called Zip and Link which allows the user to split a large King size or Super King bed into two single beds when needed by a smart system that joins the divans. This can personalize the bed, as it means that mattresses with different spring tensions can be joined, allowing different comfort and support levels for each partner.

In the US Hypnos operate out of Franklin, Tennessee and they provide a range called Hampton Court, which features the Majesty, Eminence, Empress and Sovereign mattresses , which are all high quality, high density pocket spring models (from 1200 to 4000 springs) hand-made in the US, and marketed more to the hospitality industry rather than homes. They are expensive!

When reading reviews of the Hypnos beds there will not be many negative comments, as they are extremely well made. Of course they will not fall into everyone’s budget but if you are looking for a traditional pocket-spring mattress made in the old-fashioned way with a luxurious feel, and you are prepared to meet the price, you can’t go far wrong with a Hypnos.

If an Englander mattress is in your sites, you could do worse than spend a little time to sift through the myriad of Englander mattress reviews available, in order to get an understanding of the many different mattress models they produce. Consumers have become increasingly choosy in recent years, with is why there are so many different types of mattress available – therefore, each model is aimed at fulfilling a different sleep need, or to fit in with an individual’s budgetary restraints.

Any decent Englander mattress review will outline the full array of bedding materials that are represented in the current Englander mattress listings. Englander Mattresses have incorporated all of the materials that are in high demand in to their latest product range, from the highest quality memory foam, to the most expensive, but very popular, latex foams. The material you ultimately choose depends entirely on the qualities that you’re looking for in a mattress, and how much money you have to spend on a new bed.

Company History

Back in 1894, Max Englander founded his mattress company based on the principals of providing quality mattresses at prices the average person could afford. Since then, the technology used by the company has developed exponentially, but the principles have remained the same, and today they combine state of the art technology with good traditional craftsmanship.

As early as the 1930’s, Englander had become renowned for creating handmade beds and mattresses, and had developed an excellent reputation for quality and service. During this period, the production of most products were becoming more and more automated, but Englander stuck to traditional manufacturing methods, and this served them well as a company and is a large factor in why their mattress products received such high praise.

It wasn’t until almost 1950 that Englander introduced its Red-Line boxspring, so it was somewhat behind the game at this stage. The boxspring has since gone on to become the norm for most mattress sets, but even back then, Englander were building these units at prices that made them affordable to the average American who otherwise would have had to do without.

Throughout the twentieth century, Englander was at the forefront of innovative mattress technology. Even back then, mattress reviewers all over the country gave the company praise for the way they incorporated design, technology, and traditional manufacturing techniques while still providing excellent value for money. As the twentieth century progressed, alternative materials were developed as a result of the US space program. Some of the materials we take for granted in our mattresses today, such as memory foam, are available as a direct result of the space program research.

Green Credentials

Some time ago the Englander Mattress Company committed itself to develop environmentally responsible practices throughout its business operations. To do this, they attempt to use eco-friendly materials across their entire product range – one example of this is their use of soy-based memory foam instead of the traditional petroleum-based foams.

They have also developed a range of mattresses that use only 100% organic materials – you can even ask for documentation to prove the origin of the materials if you so wish. The organic mattresses use only natural latex rubber, organic cotton, New Zealand wool, and wood from a sustainable source.

In Conclusion

Things have changed enormously since Max Englander started the company back in the nineteenth century, but the ethos the company abides by has developed to maintain his original principles. If you search for Englander mattress reviews online, you’ll be hard pressed to find many negative ones. I did find a few, that mainly complained about mattress sag, but in all honesty, it is not something I have come across personally in all my years of experience.

Englander is a brand that has been making mattresses since 1894. It says a lot about a company that has lasted more than a century of booms and recessions and still survives as a market leader. It means they are flexible enough to move with the times and also means that their products come with the promise of quality. Here we examine the Englander mattress models that keep their name near the top of any list of mattress manufacturers.

Englander Lifestyle 2 Range

This range uses eco-friendly materials in its models: natural latex as its primary support material, which is also very durable and comfortable, as well as bamboo fibers for its cover, which reduces static. Primarily these are aimed at people who need a high quality mattress and are concerned about using organic materials in their bedding. They are designed to be flipped regularly to maintain good shape

Englander Nature’s Finest Organic Range

Continuing on the organic themes, the Nature’s Finest models are all handcrafted and use only organic materials like natural latex, cotton and wool. These natural materials mean no exposure to potentially toxic chemicals, unlike some foam mattresses on the market. The certified organic label on these items means that not only are the materials natural but they have been farmed according to strict organic guidelines – that includes the wood and steel used in some of the mattresses that Englander make. As people become more environmentally aware this range is clearly designed to tap into the demand for non-chemical based bedding products.

Nature’s Finest Latex range uses 100% natural rubber, known for its body-molding comfort and orthopedic support qualities of reducing pressure on the key parts of the sleeper’s body. Motion transfer is minimal and the mattresses regulate temperature well. This all comes with a premium price of course!

Englander’s Viscopedic Memory Foam Range

Including a memory foam range is a “must” for most mattress manufacturers these days. These mattresses use high quality memory foam, designed to the standards of the original Tempur-pedic models, to provide a material that wraps around the body for extra comfort and responds to body heat to help it to mold to shape and weight, before returning to its original shape as the weight is removed. They are designed to reduce the tossing and turning in sleep that will lead to restlessness, with low motion transfer and good durability too.

Englander Synergy Fusion Foam Collection

This range combines memory foam with natural latex to provide the comfort elements of the foam (heat-sensitive, shape-conforming) with the orthopedic elements of the latex – so you get the best of both worlds.

Englander’s Posture Support Plus Range

This is a range of mattresses for the larger-bodied sleeper. The body of these mattresses uses a new dual coil system with an upper layer coils wrapped individually in fabric for extra comfort and a heavy-duty bottom layer of coils providing support. The edge is supported with steel. For added comfort in the upper layers there is latex and memory foam so functionality and robustness is not to the detriment of comfort.

Englander’s Standard Innerspring Range

Englander’s classic coil designs are the bedrock on which their name was built and they have been improving the technology over the decades. The “Tension Ease”, “Lady Englander” and “21st Century” ranges all use this technology to provide comfortable, durable mattresses.

Summary

The diversity embodied in the above ranges shows how Englander has been able to move with the times, respond to demands and use innovative new materials and sleeping design systems to stay ahead of the pack, helping to explain why they have been around for so long.

The Hypnos Mattress and Bed Company have a reputation for making the most comfortable mattresses in the world, which is a huge claim, but is it one that stands up to any kind of close scrutiny? The first thing to say is that you will find it virtually impossible to find any negative Hypnos mattress reviews online or anywhere else – this maybe because Hypnos is such a premium brand, but for whatever reason, it is a unique situation in the world of mattresses.

Hypnos Celebrity Customers

Hypnos is a British company and has been making mattresses for over 100 years. Their most famous client is probably HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen of England and the company have been providing mattresses to the British Royal Family for almost as long as they have been in existence. It is said that the Queen’s mother slept on the same Hypnos mattress for almost 70 years before her death in 2002 – throughout the entire time she used it, the mattress is said to have needed very little maintenance and apparently it was refurbished just once.

As well as Royalty, Hypnos has a rich heritage of supplying top of the range mattresses to some of the world’s finest 5 star hotels. The reason hotels choose to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fitting out their premises on mattresses alone, is because they know that if their customers sleep well, they are far more likely to return to the hotel – ask yourself if you would stay again in a hotel if its beds left you feeling tired and achy after you woke up? Hypnos mattresses are chosen because they are made from the finest materials, and are one of the few remaining handmade mattress products available today.

What Makes Them Special?

The average mattress you will find in your local mattress store will have around 600 coil springs or so, but a Hypnos mattress will have a minimum of 1200 springs. This alone won’t give you double the comfort you’d get from the other mattress, but when take into account that they only use the finest materials to finish their mattresses, you can start to see where the added expense comes in. To illustrate the attention to detail they abide by, the company has been known to reject an entire consignment of cashmere if they find a single flaw in any part of the material!

Hypnos mattresses and beds are built with comfort, luxury, and durability in mind, and to that end a Hypnos bed might be the only bed you’ll ever own. There a very few mattress manufacturers that come anywhere close to the same build standard, so it perhaps not surprising when I said you can’t find any negative Hypnos Mattress reviews online.

If you have the money to buy this type of quality, you will reap the benefits in terms of both the quality of sleep that you will get, and the fact that this type of mattress will last you for many more years than a standard mattress.

Buying a mattress is a major purchase, and whether it’s a Jamison mattress or another brand, paying careful attention to the numerous Jamison mattress reviews that are available, is a sensible thing to do. Consumers nowadays put a premium on quality products, and if a mattress, or any other product for that matter, doesn’t live up to their expectations, they are quick to go online to give their opinions – for this reason we are spoilt for choice when it comes to learning from other people’s experiences.

Jamison has been in the mattress making business for more than a century during which time it has earned a reputation for manufacturing fine mattresses that edge towards the top end of the market. This reputation has earned them long term contracts with many of the world’s leading hotel chains, such as Marriot and Intercontinental – the significance of that information to the average mattress buyer is that hotels know the value of offering their guests top quality beds to sleep in.

As well as being the favorite brand of many leading hotels, Jamison mattresses have developed something of a cult following amongst many individuals who swear by the quality of their mattress – there are hundreds of consumer mattress reviews on the Internet to back up this claim.

So, What Makes This Brand So Special?

As well as using top quality materials to make their mattresses (all the leading manufacturers claim to use the best materials), Jamison claim that it their use of new technologies that sets their mattresses apart from the other leading brands. This they claim is demonstrated best in their use of a unique spring system that they have termed the Smart Coil. Without going into too much technical jargon (you can read a technical review of Jamison mattresses at their website if you really want to), the Smart Coil is an open-ended and double offset design that is said to give increased levels of comfort.

The Smart Coil is used for Jamison’s inner-sprung mattresses, and while most mattresses use this type of springing system, it is the way they are laid out in a Jamison mattress, and the fact that they are used in tandem that is said to enhance body alignment and offer more efficient spinal support.

The result of all this technology means that the operate independently of each other, which gives a more comfortable night’s sleep, and also prevents your partner being disturbed in the night by any movements you might make.

The Downside

There are a couple of negative points that you should be aware of if you are considering buying one of their mattresses, and I’m surprised that there aren’t more Jamison mattress reviews that point these out.

The first thing to be aware of is cost, as I said earlier, Jamison mattresses tend to be pitched towards the top-end of the price range, but those who own them generally say they are worth the extra bucks they’ve spent.

Secondly, when I’ve scoured the Internet looking for consumer reviews, I’ve come across a number that complain about their mattress sagging after a while – interestingly, there seems to be a common denominator in that a majority of the reviews say that the use is a big person (over 240lbs), so maybe they are not the ideal choice if you are on the larger side.

With our Kingsdown Mattress reviews, we aim to bring you all the facts about the full range of Kingsdown mattresses that are available today – and there are some very good reasons why Kingsdown mattresses rate so highly in so many consumer reviews, let’s take a look…….

What sets Kingsdown apart from all other mattress manufacturers, is its investment in technology designed to ensure you choose the right mattress, first time, every time. Their BodyDiagnostics measurement system has taken over 15 years to develop, but can help you choose the perfect mattress to suit your sleeping needs in 2 minutes or less.

The BodyDiagnostics system takes up to 18 statistical measurements as the customer lies on a special diagnostic bed. It uses these measurements to make upwards of 1,000 calculations to determine the ideal type of sleep surface that will provide you with the maximum level of support.

Why is this sleep system so important?

Kingsdown Mattresses realize just how important sleep is to all of us, and they are also acutely aware of just how much of our lives we spend asleep. For these reasons, they suggest that your choice of mattress deserves as much consideration as where you go on vacation, or what vehicle you choose to drive.

The 15 years spent developing their system has allowed Kingsdown to create a patented technology that helps their customers select the best mattress for them by taking much of the guesswork out of the mattress buying equation. The diagnostics takes only a couple of minutes, but can save you many years of disruptive sleep.

Why this sleep system works so well

After the BodyDiagnostics system has taken the measurements it needs, it uses the information it gathers to create a digital diagnostic map of your body that highlights your body’s pressure points. This information is then compared to the thousands of other digital body maps the software stores and an ideal mattress type is recommended.

As well as recommending the ideal sleep surface for the individual customer, the BodyDiagnostics system allows Kingsland Mattresses to use the information to constantly improve their current mattresses, and develop future mattresses.

Summary

Kingsdown’s speciality lies in its focus on the construction of inner-spring type mattresses. It has invested large resources in the form of money and research in the development of cutting edge mattress technology.

When you read our Kingsdown mattress reviews, you will find that their mattresses are not aimed at the budget-minded consumer. The mattresses range between $800 to $4,000, but it’s the price you have to pay to experience the top end of the mid price mattress sector.

Kingsdown are one of those traditional US mattress manufacturers that have had to adjust to the times and separate themselves from the crowd by making a name for themselves not only for reliability and quality but also for innovation. Over a century old, Kingsdown’s quality workmanship and adaptability got them to the forefront of the quality mattress-making business and we can see in their Body Diagnostics system or “Sleep to Live” as they now call it, their ability to remain creative and to keep pushing the boundaries has helped to keep them there. But what about Kingsdown mattress prices? How affordable are they?

The first thing to point out when looking at prices is that we are looking at beds that use fine quality materials in the bases and the mattresses, including high-tempered steel in the coils and moisture-resistant, allergy and odor-free fabrics; they use a high standard box spring design that has won accolades and awards; and they finish the mattresses by hand. Kingsdown also use the diagnostics system that takes 18 measurements from your body, makes thousands of calculations and then recommends the perfect mattress that will best conform to your individual shape and weight, so they use science and take the guesswork out of the process. The MySide range allows you and your partner to specify each side of the bed exactly how you want it.

Bearing all this in mind you would not expect the Kingsdown mattresses to be very cheap. They vary from around $800 up to $4000, depending on size, exact materials and design. For a standard Queen then budget in the $1500-$2000 range.

If you are considering a Kingsdown then you are considering a box-spring mattress as they don’t use memory foam or latex foam, like many other traditional US manufacturers do now. The trick always is to shop around – if there’s a particular model you have tried out in the store and like the feel of, then you may be able to pick up a bargain at one of the online retailers.

Kingsdown are one of the oldest, most established manufacturers in the US. They have been at the forefront of mattress making in the country for over 100 years and now distribute to 20 countries around the world. Following is a brief look at the company, what they stand for and what you can expect from a typical Kingsdown bed if you are considering buying one.

Kingsdown are based in North Carolina and they started to make a name for themselves in the early 1900′s by hand-assembling box spring units that developed a reputation for lasting quality and comfort. They survived the difficult war years by using iron springs instead of steel. Later on their scientific approach to mattress design won the company accolades during the 1980′s and 1990′s, culminating in the development of the Body Diagnostics system that is the only computer-based system that helps you choose the perfect mattress for your body type – more about that later.

The ranges made by Kingsdown fall into 4 main brands – Kingsdown, MySide, BedMatch and Sleeping Beauty.

The standard Kingsdown beds are sold as supportive – allowing for proper body alignment of head, shoulders, hips and heels– and pressure-relieving – allowing for a comfortable night’s sleep. They are the standard box spring system beds with sturdy foundations that they have built their name on, promising great shock absorption and even distribution of body weight to relieve pressure on joints. These mattresses boast low-pressure sleep surfaces, so that you can stay in one position longer and experience undisturbed sleep. Above the box spring the comfort layers use Kingsdown’s Cushion Cloud Construction technology, providing softness that conforms to the body shape and thereby relieves pressure.

The Kingsdown Sleep to Live brand name actually covers the MySide and BedMatch collections and is the latest name for their Sleep Diagnostics system that we mentioned above. These collections use the Sleep to Live diagnostics to match your body type to the right, posture-supporting and maximum comfort mattress, based upon questions asked, 18 careful measurements taken from lying on the diagnostic bed and over 1000 calculations made by their program. Again the two cornerstones of Kingsdown philosophy are proper spinal alignment and pressure relief, which we saw in the Kingsdown mattress described above, but Sleep to Live tailor-designs the perfect combination for you based upon the analysis, rather than relying on guesswork.

If you are shopping with a partner the diagnostic bed will measure you both and recommend the sleep surface that is best suited to each of you. The MySide collection allows you to have one side of the bed adapted to your body type and the other side adapted to your partner’s body type, once the Sleep to Live Diagnostics system has analyzed what’s best for you.

You can see that Kingsdown, despite being one of the traditional, established names in bed manufacturing, are also innovators within the industry. They still stand by the principals of the mattresses that have built their name for reliability but they incorporate the latest technology in achieving that nowadays.

According to the Kingsdown sales literature, its Body System mattress makes allowances for each individual body type, for that read your individual body type – to ensure you get the support and comfort that you require. One aim of this Kingsdown Body System mattress review is to determine whether this is fact or not.

We have to question whether an inner-spring mattress, which is what the Body System and every other Kingsdown mattress is, can ever give the same level of comfort of the newer memory foam mattresses. The inner-spring mattress is based on old technology, but that technology has been adapted and improved on immensely over the years, and now some of the world’s finest mattresses are built around the inner-spring system.

Kingsdown don’t manufacture their own components for the Body System mattress, but that’s not necessarily a negative thing, as they are no different from any of the major manufacturers in that matter. Where all manufacturers claim to be unique is in their design and manufacturing processes. Kingsdown’s unique selling proposition is the computer technology it uses to constantly develop cutting edge mattress technology.

What are the advantages of the Body System mattress?

Because Kingsdown mattresses are not as well known as such as Sealy or Simmons, you can buy a similar quality mattress for considerably less than you would pay for one of the leading brands.

Each Kingsdown Body System mattress is topped with a 10 inch thick layer of luxury foam to make the mattress as comfortable as possible.

A Mattress’ greatest enemy is moisture, and to counter that, Kingsdown has incorporated a Flexatron™ insulator to prevent sweat being absorbed. This has the added benefit of eliminating odors, and making the mattress mildew resistant.

Kingsdown’s Cushion Cloud™ construction ensures that the comfort layers of the mattress provides proper spinal alignment so that any pressure points are eliminated.

What are the disadvantages?

The Kingsdown Body System mattress is a very heavy mattress which makes it very difficult to move. This is not a huge disadvantage, because mattresses don’t need moving too often, but it is one I thought worth mentioning.

I have heard reports of some retailers delivering different Kingsdown mattresses from the ones they had on display in their stores. So check very carefully that you get the mattress that you ordered.

Summary

While researching this Kingsdown Body System mattress review, it has become obvious that this mattress is very similar in quality and design to the likes of the Sealy Posturpedic mattress – they make use of similar materials and technologies. If anything, what gives the Kingsdown the edge, is their use of computer technology to help their customers find the right mattress for them.

If you believe in living life king size, a ‘Kingsdown mattress’ is what you are looking for. This mattress is exactly what it sounds like, truly king size. This is no cheap mattress though, and is seen on the most luxurious form of beds, with huge massive side cushions to give it a pleasing look. To add to its luxurious features, it is extremely durable, in the sense that they can be used for many years to come – without any damage or fading of its quality. Kingsdown mattresses are by far the most luxurious and elegant items you can have in your bedroom.

However, if you take a close look at the price range of these mattresses, you might be disappointed to know that they fall in the more costly price bracket. A Kingsdown mattress is one of the most reputed high profile mattresses around, aiming to give you the richest and most classy look possible for your bedroom. Although there are sometimes reasonable discounts and offers on these mattresses, generally Kingsdown mattress prices are at the top end of the scale, but for your money, you get a top quality product that will serve you well for many years to come.

A Kingsdown matress has always been renowned for its use of new technologies, and this is based around the ‘Body Diagnostics’ adjustment process. The mattresses closely monitor the sleeping habit of a person, and it adjusts the surface of the bed to adapt to his/her sleeping positions. The intelligent working of this bed ensures that the person sleeping on it, is most comfortable and able to achieve perfect posture. One of the most important manufacturing features of the Kingsdown mattress is that they are constructed with ‘Full Body Surround’ and ‘Cloud Cushion’. Through this, body weight is evenly distributed, thereby giving a relaxed sleep as the pressure points are relieved. Broad surface allows the best support system for our body.

If you’ve ever read a Kingsdown mattress review before, you’ll know that they provide extreme levels of comfort to every sleeper, as they are in-built with technology which allows the bed to adjust, according to your movements while in sleep. The Body Diagnostic technology has never been seen in this type of product before, so Kingsdown mattresses have certainly made a mark in today’s mattress market.

The Kingsdown mattresses reviews that are available will talk about other types of mattress with varied additional features such as the Perfect Partner, Body System and Plush Sense. Additionally, other types include Body Duet, Body Essential, Body System, Body Blend and Body Caress mattresses.

Needless to say, with such amazing technical features, taking care of our sleeping habits, buying a Kingsdown mattress is worth the investment and definitely one of the best decisions we can ever make. It is a once in a lifetime investment and the benefits seen through the use of these mattresses are numerous.

Kingsdown mattresses are one of the most popular mattresses used world wide. Initially, they were entirely hand made, and materials used to make these mattresses were all natural; horsehair was used for insulation and hard skin case.

Since the early days, things have changed dramatically, and now, Kingsdown mattresses are now entirely made of hypoallergenic materials, using the manufacturing support of advanced technology – the final finish is still done by hand though to ensure the best definition of comfort and luxury for the users. The list of luxury features doesn’t end there though…….

Every Kingsdown mattress is made with allergy-free materials, and those materials of are all mildew and bacteria resistant. Thus if you a have tendency for dust allergy, or respiratory problems you can use this type of mattress safely. This type of mattress is 100% safe for all children, but especially so for those children who suffer from dermatitis, bronchial asthma and other allergy related conditions.

Kingsdown also provide adequate and healthy support for contours as well as for weight distribution, which results in quality management and reduction of sagging edges which is a regular occurrence with cheaper mattresses. Unlike a standard pocket spring mattress, Kingsdown matresses use high temper steel to make their coils, this has the effect of providing more resistance against shocks and jerks.

The Latest mattress introduced by The Kingsdown Matress Company is the Body System – this particular mattress system provides complete support for body, so that the head, ankles, hips, and spine remain in comfortable, straight position while you sleep on this mattress.

As per the Kingsdown mattress reviews that are easily found on the Internet, consumers have rated this mattress as one of the best natural sleep machines of 21st century – this acclamation is not a mere coincidence; it is the result of extensive R&D process that took place before making the mattress ready for market. The best way for you to test this out, is to visit your local store and write you own Kingsdown Mattress review based on the experience you have trying it out.

When it comes to buying a new mattress from Kingsdown, even the selection process is semi-automated for you – the selection process is run by an efficient computerized system and a machine called the Dormo Diagnostic Sleep Machine. After taking few readings of the customer, the Dormo Machine can prescribe the right Kingsdown product that should be the best option for you.

The King Koil mattress brand has been with us for well over 100 years, and my first assumption is always that a company with so much history must be doing lots of things right for them to have survived so long. Additionally, you might have read a number of King Koil mattress reviews that mention the fact that a large number of 5-star hotels choose mattresses from King Koil for their bedrooms.

Over the years, King Koil has strived hard to ensure that their advances in technology have always resulted in a new mattress range that offers the customer a whole lot more than its predecessor. The company claim that they offer many high end features in their mattresses, but they claim to do that without making their customers spend money unnecessarily. They also claim to be the only mattress company to have its products endorsed by the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research (FCER), although we have been unable to verify this at the time of writing.

Features

Zoned coil spring system – King Koil Mattresses zoned coil spring system is designed to offer additional support to the areas of the body where it is most needed. The King Koil Spine Support mattress for example has a 3 zone system, while the King Koil Perfect Contour mattress has 5 zones of coils. Each coil zone is strategically placed to provide maximum support in the areas that receive the most pressure.

High quality materials – Each King Koil mattress is made from top quality materials to ensure that the mattresses have a long useful life. Their zoned coil spring systems are encased in premium foam to help prevent sagging and add stability and durability to the mattress sides.

The Downside

It’s difficult to find many bad King Koil mattress reviews; in fact I could only find a handful when I was writing this. The main complaint centered on an exacerbated back problem that the customer attributed to their King Koil mattress. You always need to bare in mind that, generally speaking, consumers who have a positive experience with a product DON’T write reviews for that product, so to find so few negative reviews is quite comforting.

The King Koil Mattress Company has a long pedigree of selling mattresses in the United States, and you don’t survive for as long as they have if your products are shoddy. Their mattresses are suitable for all ages, from their Kool Kids range, right through to their Luxury Escapes mattress. With prices in the $600 to $3,000 range, it’s unsurprising that that feature so highly in many King Koil mattress reviews.

If you have your own review of a King Koil mattress, let us know what you think and we’ll do our best to give you your very own page.

The easiest way to find the latest King Koil mattress prices is to search the Internet on some of the hundreds of websites that are selling King Koil mattresses. Generally speaking you will find that your local mattress discounter won’t be able to match these prices, but it will give you a good starting point, and you will be able to use it when you are negotiating a final price.

The King Koil Spine Support mattress is the most popular model in their range, so is probably the model that you are most likely to be able to negotiate a discount on. Whatever discount you might get offered however, should only be considered if you feel the Spine Support mattress is the right mattress for you – never choose a mattress based solely on the deal you get offered!

The prices of King Koil mattresses can vary widely, and the Spine Support model is no different because of the myriad of different trims that are available. The cheapest I can find at the moment is in the region of $500, which is for a Bayshore queen mattress. That price point increases to as much as $1,200 for the King Koil Jemma queen mattress.

As I said previously, you will almost certainly find the best King Koil mattress prices if you search the Internet, but I would never advice anyone to choose their new King Koil mattress that way. To find a mattress that suits both you and your partner, it is absolutely essential that you try out each mattress before you decide to consider it.

If it’s a King Koil Spine Support mattress you have set your heart on, go to your local mattress store and spend some time lying on the mattress. You should aim to spend at least 15 to 20 minutes on each mattress you try, and don’t just lay still, because that’s not what will happen when you take it home.

Move around a little, try lying on your back and both sides, and pay particular attention to how it feels when your partner moves around. If you feel their movements easily, there is a possibility that any movement they make while they’re asleep will disturb your sleep.

When you’ve chosen the exact model of mattress you want, that’s the time to go back to the Internet and find the best King Koil mattress prices that you can get. And never forget that any mattress you buy will probably have to last you for at least 8 to 10 years so make your decision wisely. The King Koil Spine Support mattress is a good mid-range model and should serve you well.

This Sealy mattress reviews page will give you an overview of what the Sealy Mattress Company does, and also provide links to specific Sealy products such as the Sealy Posturepedic mattress, the Sealy Trueform, and their latest model the Sealy Springfree mattress. In time we will review other models as well, but in the meantime, we will concentrate on the most popular mattress models they make.

Sealy started making mattresses back in 1881 in Sealy, Texas. The original business started producing cotton filed mattresses to order, and grew quickly as the demand for quality mattresses took off. Fifteen years after it began, the company was sold, along with its many patents, to another Texas company that retained the Sealy name. Soon after the sale, an ad executive working for the company coined the slogan “sleeping on a Sealy is like sleeping on a cloud” – and with that one short sentence, a national phenomenon was born.

Quality Still Counts…

Sealy has been the market leader in the US for more than three decades, and while much of this success is undoubtedly down to great marketing, you don’t stay on top for more than thirty years unless your product lives up to the hype.

The products quality comes as a result of the company’s commitment to research & development, and also in its use of top quality materials and its innovative manufacturing techniques. The company’s Posturepedic mattress for example was designed and developed in conjunction with some of the world’s leading orthopaedic doctors to ensure that it provides optimum levels of back support for anyone who sleeps on it.

When it comes to materials used, Sealy claim they use only the best materials available – but you would expect them to say that wouldn’t you? However, their claims do seem to hold up when you examine their products closely. This is illustrated best by the company’s patented UniCased Edge design which ensures that the mattress keeps its shape even when it gets used regularly over long periods of time.

The Downside

If you search online you will find negative reviews written about virtually all the leading brands of mattress. I’ve got to be honest with you, if you search for Sealy mattress reviews, you will find more negative reviews than you will for most other brands – there are however some very good reasons for this. If you remember, I told you that Sealy had been the leading brand in the US for more than thirty year, so given the millions of mattresses they have sold over the years; they are bound to have their fair share of disgruntled customers.

The industry magazine reviews of Sealy mattresses are generally very complimentary about the quality and durability of the Sealy mattress range. The negative online consumer reviews generally mention mattress sag as the main bone of contention, but again that is very similar to other mattresses.

The Sealy Posturepedic mattress is something of an institution in the mattress world, if only for the length of time that it’s been gracing the showroom floors around the US. Not only have Sealy themselves been making mattresses for 130 years, but they have been producing the Posturepedic model in various guises for 60 years!

During the Great Depression, Sealy not only managed to survive, but they introduced a new Button-Free Innerspring mattress model. This tells you something about the company and helps explain why they have risen to become the largest mattress manufacturer in the world. They sell a LOT of beds!

Even as times have changed and new models have been introduced – like the Embody range of memory foam and latex foam mattresses – the Sealy Posturepedic models still sit proudly as a key feature of the Sealy lines.

If you are looking to buy one of these what will you get for your investment? Firstly, being 60 years old, you probably guessed it’s a traditional innerspring model but it’s not quite that simple. There are 2 different types of systems used – one using the Posturepedic Titanium SS technology and the other using the Posturepedic Titanium DSx. The SS is a single-stage coil and the DSx is a dual-stage coil that offers even more support. The center third of the mattress, where the most support is necessary, is power-packed to further increase support there.

All mattresses feature LiftRight handles which may or may not go all the way around, making maintenance of the mattresses (turning, flipping, changing bed linen) much easier. They also feature a StayTight rubber foundation cover stops shifting of the mattress on its base.

Around the edges of Sealy Posturepedic mattresses you find the SitTight Edge System which reinforces the bed edges from the wear and tear they can experience; it also extends the sleeping surface right to the corners of the mattress.

The base of a Posturepedic is adjustable and uses a Dual Massage programmable position memory function and a wireless controller.

The top of the mattress comes down to your personal taste, as Sealy offer plush, firm and pillow-top finishes for you to choose from.

The mattresses are available in all the standard sizes you would expect, plus the California King size and a split Queen size (two 30″ x 80″ box springs.) They all come with a 10 year warranty.

Sealy Posturepedic prices vary depending on the options you choose, but the most basic Queen size mattress will be around $600. If you choose a Titanium DSx it will be around $900 for the mattress.

Most people who have ever bought a mattress will have heard of Sealy and many will have tried their products out in bedding centers around the US. They have been the Number 1 selling brand in the US for about the past 30 years. Specifically the Sealy Posturepedic mattress has been one of the best known names during this time and continues to hold its reputation to this day, even in the face of stiffer and stiffer competition from new manufacturers, new designs and new materials. We show you here what the Sealy brand name means today and the main features and benefits of the Posturepedic mattress are.

Sealy started out in the town of the same name in Texas back in the late 1800′s, so they are an ages-old institution. Back then, of course, mattresses were made from cotton and mattress-making was often seen as an offshoot for businesses involved in the cotton trade. That was the case here and Sealy grew rapidly – even in 1920 they had 23 licensed plants. Sealy mattresses began to reconfirm their reputation for quality and innovation and in the 1950′s their Posturepedic mattress was to become their flagship product. They were also the first manufacturer to display and advertise a King size bed, they created an orthopedic advisory board (strictly independent of course!) and they helped to reinvent the innerspring coil and the box spring. In 1983, Sealy purchased Stearns & Foster, adding a luxury range to their existing collections. Nowadays they are developing their own latex, as they cater to growing demand for alternative materials.

It’s quite amazing to think that Sealy Posturepedic mattresses have been around for 60 years! What is it about them that has stood the test of time so well? In the face of all the memory foam and latex foam mattresses that have flooded the market in recent years the Posturepedic is a good old-fashioned innerspring mattress that still sells remarkably well.

Taking a closer look at the Posturepedic, it features either single-stage or dual- stage titanium springs. These are stronger and lighter than traditional steel springs and Sealy claim that they retain 98% of their original height and support benefits for the entire life of the mattress. The support element is also bolstered by the reinforced CoreSupport feature at the center of the mattress, which is power-packed to enhance its support function. Most of the mattresses also feature a handle that goes all the way around, allowing easy turning and flipping of the mattress, as well as easy handling when moving it and easy sheet-changing. It has a StayTight Foundation which provides a non-slip rubber surface to hold sheets in place and stop the mattress from shifting around with your motion at night. The softness or firmness of the top cushioning surface is up to you and you can choose from several that Sealy offers.

As you can see, what you are getting with Sealy Posturepedic beds are strong, robust products that have evolved through the years to provide you with many useful features that supplement the primary comfort and support elements that they offer.

You won’t have any problems finding Sealy mattresses as they are carried in 2000 retailers across the country – as you’d expect from the best selling mattress provider. Queen Posturepedic mattresses start at around $600 – $800, depending on the coil system you choose. The warranty will be a minimum of 10 years on all Sealy mattresses.

This article provides some guidelines to anyone looking to buy a Sealy queen mattress and will address the choices that you have and the various features and benefits of the different ranges as well as providing a few pointers about how to find useful and accurate information about the various models you are considering.

Firstly, let’s look at Sealy, the manufacturer. They have been at the forefront of American mattress making since the late 19th century and this puts them in very good company at the leading edge of the market. Few makers can compete with the name that Sealy have built and maintained through the many decades as changes from cotton to spring to memory foam/latex have affected the mattress market. Of course they have had to remain flexible enough to move with the times and incorporate new technologies and materials into their products, without sacrificing the reputation they have for quality, well-made products.

Specifically then, Sealy Queen mattress sets are available in innerspring designs via their Posturepedic range and memory foam and latex foam designs via their Embody range. All three types of mattress are also available in their standard Sealy Brand range.

The Posturepedic range of innerspring models will cost around $600-900 for a queen size set and employ both dual stage and single stage coil technology. The latter is the cheaper version; both types have reinforced middle thirds of the mattress for extra support in the key areas. They will also have useful handles on their corners for easier maintenance of the mattress – both in terms of turning the mattress regularly, which is recommended for all coil mattresses, and for changing the sheets.

This range lets you choose the qualities you prefer in the upper cushioning layer of the mattress. If you like a firm finish or an extra plush finish, these are available, along with others. So every attempt is made to tailor-make the mattress to your needs.

The Embody range of memory foam and latex mattresses will start at $2000 for a queen set, so they are a considerable step upwards in price. This is because Sealy uses the finest materials that allow for great temperature control and also allow the mattress to breathe – a very important feature that the poorer-quality manufacturers miss out on by using cheaper materials in an effort to keep the price down. Comfort is not just about softness or firmness, but also about heat regulation. As you go up the Embody range in price, more memory foam is used (this is the expensive element of the mattress.)

As you are shopping for these items you should combine walk-ins to the store with online research. With mattresses, which are touchy-feely types of purchases, it’s important that you lie down on a few and check them for your own personal comfort levels, especially if you are going to spend $2000 plus on a memory foam model. Nothing will replace this.

Once you have found a model that suits you, make a note of it and go back home to see what you can find out online. There is the Sealy web site which will give you the manufacturer claims; review sites that will give you analysis and customer comments (careful that they are independent sites, not merely promoting the Sealy brand) and retail sites that you can shop around for the best deals on. If you’re lucky you may stumble across a Sealy queen mattress sale somewhere and you can pick up a bargain.

Sealy is one of the instantly recognizable brands in the US bedding market and the company has built and maintained its reputation for quality since 1881. Traditional cotton-filled and innerspring mattresses were the bedrock on which their name was built but nowadays all the main manufacturers have had to incorporate new materials like memory foam and latex into their ranges and Sealy is no exception. Here we examine the Sealy memory foam mattress line and see how it stacks up.

The kingpin of the memory foam range for Sealy is the “Embody” mattress, which can be made using latex too. A visit to their web site will show you how these substances differ to the traditional innerspring steel coils in terms of the sleeping experience: they claim that memory foam feels like you are sleeping “in” the mattress rather than on it.

A brief scan of web sites out there may have you a little confused. Queen size Sealy memory foam mattresses will start at around $2000, yet other brands advertise models for $400 or $500, sometimes even cheaper. What you are getting with a Sealy mattress is a commitment to quality, backed up with a 20-year warranty, and this can be important if you are making an investment into an item that you want to be around in your home for many years.

The general ethos that Sealy uses when manufacturing a mattress is that the materials they use should promote comfort and health. With their memory foam they use a special design that adds breathe-ability to the mattress and allows air to flow, keeping the mattress cool. They use award-winning Polartec body climate fabrics. Many cheaper mattresses do suffer from over-heating or foam that does not respond well at all to body heat.

Another feature of the Embody Sealy foam mattress is that it uses anti-microbial fabric that keeps dust mites and other allergens away.

The Embody range has four different qualities – all are 100% foam, but at the higher end of the range more memory foam is used, so the higher the comfort value in general.

These mattresses are made in all the standard sizes and even in a California King size, which is 72 x 84 inches instead of the standard 76 x 80 inches for a king size.

Overall, if you are seriously considering one of these mattresses you will be prepared to make an investment for the future. If it’s going to be put into the main bedroom and will be slept on night after night you will have the peace of mind that you have bought lasting quality.

Here we take a look at what you can expect from the Serta brand mattresses – the extent of the range they offer, the workmanship and materials that go into the making of their models and the comfort and durability levels you can expect from their top selling mattress. We also show you how you can use the online resources such as Serta mattress reviews, to research these items yourselves.

Serta claim on their web site that they make the “World’s Best Mattresses” which is a pretty big claim considering all the quality makers out there these days, many with a long history of manufacturing quality bedding products. They have even trademarked the phrase!

Let’s start with a little history. Based in Illinois Serta were formed as an alliance of independent manufacturers in 1933. Back then of course the coil-spring mattress dominated and Serta prided itself on achieving industry breakthroughs and innovation – the first “tuftless” mattress, for example. Nowadays their range includes the full spectrum of materials and finishes but they retain their name for quality and innovation with products like their Advanced Comfort Quilt and Continuous Support Innerspring mattresses. Their products are produced out of 23 locations in the US, 4 in Canada and they have facilities in 23 locations abroad.

There are too many individual mattresses in their range to consider here but let’s take a look at their self-proclaimed best-selling model – the Perfect Sleeper mattress. This is a strong, robust, innerspring type, that claims to reduce tossing and turning with their Advanced Comfort Quilt feature.

We went to check some Serta reviews. Firstly we read that this item has the lowest return rate of all mattresses sold. No sources were quoted but this sounded like a good start. Then we took a look at the manufacturing process and learned that these Serta mattresses have a continuous wire coil count of over 1500 per model, which is a lot higher than the industry standard. They also use a high grade of steel for their coils. Some people seem to view continuous coil models as outdated and being poor in terms of motion transfer when people are sharing the mattress. With the popularity of pocket spring mattresses, latex and memory foam models there are more choices, but the fact is that Serta have been making these for such a long time and their expertise counts for a lot – there’s a lot to be said for sticking to what you know best and this can give you the assurance of quality that some of the other materials and manufacturers cannot provide.

Another feature of the Perfect Sleeper is the high density foam that sits on top of the springs, adding layers for comfort. These Serta mattress models also come with fire retardancy built in and an edge protector system which adds durability and extends the area of the mattress. The ticking and quilt in these mattresses uses 100% cotton.

As well as Perfect Sleeper, Serta is known for its Perfect Day and Sertapedic brands, as well as their hotel mattresses; all of these are traditional innerspring types. However, the company does also make other types of mattresses within these ranges, including latex and memory foam models.

One of the major criticisms leveled at this brand is the Serta mattress prices, but they all come with a 10-year warranty and if you turn your mattress regularly don’t be surprised to see it last beyond the warranty period. Rather than just considering the price perhaps we need to look at value for money, when we are buying something we expect to be sleeping on, and to remain comfortable and supportive, for many years into the future.

If you are looking to purchase one of these mattresses then do your homework first. Combine the tips and information you gather from the online manufacturer and retailer sites with what you pick up from reviews. There should be plenty of general buying guidelines on all of these types of sites, helping you to make a choice to suit your needs.

If you are reading the Serta review sites make sure that they are independent and provide well-researched information and informed opinion; also make sure that customer comments are from real customers and not marketing teams as there is a lot of misinformation about all types of products on the Internet nowadays. Never buy a mattress without testing it out first in the store or from somebody who owns one. Once you have selected your exact model you can always search around the online retailers for the best deal.

Serta is one of the leading mattress suppliers in the US – in fact they are the second largest manufacturer after Sealy. They have made their name over 80 years and supply their spring and latex models commercially to the hotel industry but they are also popular for homes. Here we take a look at the options available in their ranges and how you can secure discount Serta mattresses at the best possible prices.

The Seta web site will reveal some basic information about their lines but we will need to dig a bit deeper than that.

The trademark Serta mattress is the Perfect Sleeper which has been stocked by bedding stores for 75 years in various forms. Nowadays this model uses the Continuous Support innerspring system that uses rows of coils running head to toe to provide support and reduce motion transfer. These mattresses also feature the Advanced Comfort Quilt upper layer of egg-crate foam that provides the luxurious finish on top of the springs. The Total Edge technology of the corners and edges adds strength to the mattress and extends the sleeping surface right to the bed’s edge. These are strong, robust models that use a dual-beam foundation and this claim is backed up with a 10-year limited warranty. Memory foam and latex options are now available in this range too, so Serta have all the bases covered.

As well as the flagship Perfect Sleeper, which gives you an idea of what the manufacturer is know for, Serta’s other main ranges are Perfect Day, Vera Wang, Trump Home, Nickelodeon, Sertapedic and Paul Deen Home. These offer a mixture of materials and added features but all come with the stamp of quality that Serta provide from their core innerspring designs and builds.

Most of us will expect to pay a bit more for this level of quality and workmanship but we can get a discount Serta mattress by researching and shopping online. Choosing the best review sites will help us make an informed decision – most of the best ones will have general buying tips aimed at helping you find exactly what you want, as well as multiple ranges and brands (not just a couple of manufacturers) and some independent analysis of the models in question. Maybe they will have customer comments and Top 10 listings, but we tend to put less emphasis on these features as they are open to abuse.

You’ll find Serta models in many leading bedding centers and this will give you a chance to test out a few of your preferred models. You can decide which one suits your comfort and support requirements the best and see if you like the plush or firm finishes. You should be able to compile a list of a few “contenders” this way.

Afterwards you can check for cheap Serta mattresses online again at the retailers’ sites. Look out for clearance sales and discontinued models and you may land a great mattress at a bargain price. Or you may be lucky enough to find the exact one you tried in the store at a reduced price. Providing you are dealing with an established retailer you’ll be able to order, pay and arrange delivery so that your brand new mattress arrives at your door in a week or so, with you safe in the knowledge that you have done your homework on your purchase beforehand.

Serta is a manufacturer most famous for its Perfect Sleeper mattresses that have been one of the leading mattress types for many years now, both in terms of quality and sales. This article looks at the Sertapedic brand from the same manufacturer and details what its main features are, what you can expect if you buy one of them and how to use online Sertapedic mattress reviews to help you make the right decision.

Serta have been one of the market leaders in high-end innerspring mattresses for decades now and they earned a name for innovation with several breakthrough technologies they developed. They pride themselves on making the “World’s Best Mattresses”. Based out of Illinois, but with sites all over the world, they have maintained their position by adding new materials and technologies consistently to their basic designs that offer well-made, comfortable and durable mattress sets.

The Sertapedic range is positioned below the Perfect Sleeper range in terms of its target market. These mattresses still have some of the standard design features of the Perfect Sleeper, like the Double Beam foundation, which provides a very stable base, but the similarity kind of ends there. The coil-springs use a different technology that Serta terms “Verticoil Premier” which is a patent-pending system aiming to give more innerspring coverage and therefore more support than in other similarly priced mattresses. The comfort level of Sertapedic mattresses is provided by soft foams and fibers atop the coils, and you have a number of choices with varying firmnesses and plush-nesses.

These last two features are both lower-end solutions than those in the Perfect Sleeper range but, as ever, you get what you pay for…and these are half the price of their more-esteemed “cousins.”

As well as innerspring Sertapedic mattresses this range also incorporates latex and memory foam models, in response to the growing popularity of these materials in the bedding market. Again these are priced lower than other Serta brands.

If you are looking to do some research through a few Sertapedic reviews online we would advise that you choose your sites carefully. Nowadays many articles and reviews are written by people who have never been near the item in question, but are recycling information, misinformation and disinformation that floats around on the Internet. Look for sites that offer a good cross-section of brands rather than concentrating on just a couple of manufacturers; also, find a site that offers some mattress buying guidelines – truly independent non-brand specific tips that everybody should be using before committing to buy; finally we suggest that looking for sites that mix some analytical reviews with customer comments might be more reliable than just pages and pages of comments, as we never really know the validity of these comments.

Here we take a look at the best selling mattress from Serta and, indeed, its signature model. We will show you the main features of this mattress, what you can expect from it in terms of price, comfort and durability and we will advise you how to find out what people are saying about it, in online Serta Perfect Sleeper reviews.

First up, some background about the Serta Company – they have operated out of Illinois since their formation in the early 1930’s at the end of the Great Depression, when a few independent manufacturers joined forces to create the company. Since that day they have built and maintained their reputation as a leading American manufacturer of top range mattresses, with 23 facilities in the USA and many overseas sites. They made and have retained their name from the traditional coil-spring mattresses and have recently expanded their lines to include other types, such as latex and memory foam models.

The Serta Perfect Sleeper mattresses are, without question, their leading model and most people who have spent any serious time looking for mattresses will recognize the name. This particular model has been around for many years and has seen many innovations and tweaks to its original design, because Serta seems to like to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with coil-spring designs.

The Serta Perfect Sleeper mattress has the lowest return rate of any mattress, it is claimed. It incorporates the company’s Advanced Comfort Quilt technology into a durable innerspring mattress set that is backed up by a 10 year warranty. These mattresses are very coil-dense, which distributes the body-weight of the sleeper very effectively, adding comfort and longevity to the model. In fact, it has more than 1500 top quality continuous steel wire-coils in its body, which is considerably higher than the industry standard. Above the coils sits layers of high density “egg crate” foam, which is designed to reduce tossing and turning by relieving the pressure points of the body and provide added comfort benefits.

Other key features of this mattress are its fire retardancy and the edge support system that it employs, which expands the sleeping area of the mattress somewhat. The strengthened edges also make it less prone to “roll off.” Also, the actual frame of the mattress, which is critical to provide a long-lasting build, uses the Serta Double Beam Foundation for added strength.

The Serta Perfect Sleeper price will range from around $600 to over $2000, depending on sizes, materials and finishes. The range incorporates materials like latex and memory foam nowadays, in line with current trends in the bedding market, but the most popular Serta models are still their innerspring ones.

When you read Serta mattress reviews online there a few things to bear in mind. Firstly, a good review site should include some general buying guidelines for mattresses, a good cross-section of brands and a mixture of technical and scientific details (mattress specifications etc.) along with customer comments relating anecdotal experiences. If you come across a site that just has a couple of brands featured and a lot of customer comments then be aware that you are probably not getting independent analysis.

That being said good reviews will raise questions about what you should be looking for in your mattress, if you are looking to buy. You should be asking questions about your exact requirements in terms of comfort and support levels and durability, as this will greatly affect your budget. The Serta mattresses may represent a significant investment for you, so make sure you know what you’re getting for your money.

The Simmons Mattress Company was founded back in the 1870’s, so it is fair to say they have plenty of history. Their pedigree was enhanced in the early 1900’s when they were invited to furnish the first class areas of the ill-fated Titanic. The company has moved on considerably over the last century, and if you take the time to read through some of Simmons mattress reviews, you’ll see that their products are some of the most modern available today.

Simmons Mattresses are responsible for many of the leading innovations in the mattress industry, such as the coil spring system, that was introduced back in 1889. Slightly later, in 1900, the company developed the padded coil system – the coils, which were individually hand padded to provide extra comfort, were very expensive to make, so were the sole preserve of their more affluent customers.

Moving ahead to the 1950’s, when other manufacturers were stuck manufacturing twin and full sized mattresses, Simmons were the first company to introduce the Queen size and the King size mattress. These larger size mattresses became popular very quickly with the public and other mattress makers after they were featured in magazines such as Life.

Other notable developments from the Simmons Mattress Company include:

Introduction in 1995 of the Backcare Mattress – this mattress aided the proper alignment of the spine while the occupant slept.

Development in 2001 of the Olympic Queen size mattress – this was an innovation that gave couples an extra six inches of mattress space, with the need to invest in a larger bed frame.

Introduction in 2004 of the HealthSmart mattress and bed – this bed was designed to help allergy sufferers while they slept.

The Simmons mattress range splits down into five distinct usage areas. Each mattress type is aimed at a very specific type of customer to address their sleep related needs. The range encompasses all age groups from a range of kids’ mattresses, through to foam mattresses and spring coil mattress made for adults. The 5 product ranges are:

The Simmons Beautyrest Mattress – a pocketed coil mattress that have a ‘Triton’ base and are claimed to virtually eliminate motion transmission. This lack of motion transfer is said to make the bed ideal for couples to share.

The Simmons Beautyrest Black Mattress – these are considered to be the Simmons luxury range of coil-sprung mattresses. Featuring an advanced pocketed coil system and consisting of luxury fabrics such as cashmere, silk, and modal yarn, they are said to provide soothing comfort.

The Simmons Natural Care Mattress – a range of mattresses made from 100% natural biodegradable materials. This is an eco-friendly range of hypo-allergenic mattresses that is especially suited to those that suffer from a range of different allergies.

The Simmons ComforPedic Mattress – made from high density advanced NxG memory foam, this mattress has some clever in-built technology. The advanced memory foam is said to dissipate body heat, which addresses one of the memory foam mattresses biggest drawbacks, that of sleepers over-heating.

Simmons Kids Mattress – they say it’s never too early to benefit from a great night’s sleep, and that is what Simmons promises from its kids range of mattresses.

In these Simmons Mattress reviews, will we try to include as many mattress reviews as we can. We will test out their claims to prevent joint pains, back aches and neck problems. If you have your own views on a particular Simmons mattress, let us have your review and we will publish it for all to see.

For a company that made its name from traditional coil-spring mattresses Simmons has taken the new developments in design and materials in its stride and has created its own range of competitive foam models. We take a look at the choices on offer in the Simmons foam mattress range and what can you expect from them.

The best-known Simmons foam range is the Comfor-pedic memory foam series. This range uses NXG memory foam which is a specially formulated foam that reacts to heat and pressure to provide a sleeping experience where the mattresses envelop the body. This foam is highly responsive and so takes the body weight quickly and completely, molding to the contours. It also dissipates heat so that no overheating occurs, which can be a problem with some of the cheaper memory foam mattresses. With the Comfor-pedic mattress range also comes matching memory foam pillows as an extra accessory.

The range incorporates 5 models to choose from. The higher you go up the range – from the BlueSky to the Fiji – the more memory foam is used and the thicker the comfort layer becomes. Also latex is used in the top models as well as something called GelTouch, which adds an extra cooling sensation to the mattress.

A Simmons memory foam mattress from this range is available in plush or firm finishes, uses stretch-knit removable and dry-cleanable covers (with suede used for the borders) for ease of maintenance and comes with a limited 25-year warranty.

The assurance of quality from the manufacturer’s name and the accompanying warranty means that these are not the cheapest memory foam mattresses available, but comparing these with a $300 or $400 mattress is not comparing like for like. You are paying a premium for the workmanship and the quality and thicknesses of the materials used. Simmons memory foam is based on the original foam that was designed by NASA for astronauts to use and which was brought into the mainstream mattress market by Tempur-pedic. A lot of manufacturers now copy this technology but use cheaper materials to keep the prices down.

The name Simmons is a famous name for mattresses worldwide and is associated with a quality assurance that few other manufacturers can compete with. As you would expect from a company that started making mattresses 140 years ago they have developed a huge range through the years, maintaining their core innerspring products and adding new innovative memory foam and latex models to their collection. Here we take a look through the Simmons mattress sets and throw some light on what your choices are.

The Simmons ranges fall into 7 main categories: the BeautyRest, BeautyRest Black, Comfor-pedic, Natural Care, Simmons Kids, BeautySleep and Comfort Advantage ranges, encompassing all the materials and technologies you would expect from a top name.

Starting with the BeautyRest range, these mattresses use Simmons’ own pocket-spring technology as opposed to standard coils which are tied with wire. These models use carbon steel springs which are pre-compressed and individually wrapped in non-allergenic fabric for extra pressure relief for the sleeper. Pocket springs reduce motion transfer so BeautyRest mattresses are ideal for couples sharing a bed. This range has recently added a memory foam option too, which works in combination with the springs to produce a top-level combination mattress set.

The BeautyRest Black mattresses are a new addition this year and combine the pocket-spring technology with Simmons’ Transflexion Comfort technology, which actually treats the foams used in the mattress before they are placed inside, for extra comfort. As always with a Simmons mattress set they are available in firm or plush finishes.

The other main innerspring Simmons collection is the BeautySleep range, which uses a compact, heavy gauge coil system in its mattress bodies to provide the support. Some models in the series also now use Simmons memory foam, BackGuard support and other foams for extra comfort.

The Natural Care collection is series of three mattresses using varying levels of natural latex, from a soy-enhanced foam and latex mix to an all-latex model. These mattresses are designed to be comfortable, supportive, hypo-allergenic and heat-regulating and normally appeal to people who like the thought and feel of using natural materials. They come with a 20-year warranty and are a high-end solution.

You may have heard of the Simmons Comfor-pedic range of memory foam mattress sets. These use their NXG high-grade memory foam which is very shape-conforming and responds well to body heat. This sensitivity separates the Simmons range from other cheaper ranges that use lower grade memory foam and do not always match the standards of workmanship. Simmons back up this guarantee of quality with a 25-year limited warranty on each of the 5 mattresses in the range.

The other main memory foam range from Simmons is the Comfort Advantage collection. These are modern-looking mattresses with a good layer of memory foam, soft-knit fabrics for a smooth finish and the Triton foundation for a robust build.

We have covered all of the main mattress set ranges from Simmons, with the exception of the Kids series. These encompass a vast range of grades, materials, builds and finishes but all with the guarantee of being well-made and backed up with excellent warranties. There really should be something for everyone here.

A Simmons Beautyrest mattress offers customers a wide range of choices and scores consistently highly in many consumer satisfaction surveys. The Simmons Beautyrest comes in a range of different styles and finishes, and there are a number of different springing options available.

Features

The Simmons brand has built its reputation on the back of the three key features of each mattress they build:

Patented Pocketed Spring system – all Simmons mattresses feature their patented Pocketed Coil system. These uniquely design, hand finished coils provide excellent support throughout the night which is one of the main reasons Simmons actively encourage all their customers to try their mattresses before they buy. The number of pocketed coils in the Simmons Beautyrest range varies from 800 for the Beautyrest Classic, to almost 2,000 in the Beautyrest Exceptionale mattress generally speaking, the more coils your mattress has the more comfort it will provide.

Advanced sidewall technology – the strength of any mattress is derived from the quality of the work and materials that go into the sidewall of the mattress. Simmons use two different systems in their Beautyrest range, the Classic Edge Support system and the Ultra 360 Foam Encasement. Both of these systems offer excellent levels of comfort for both sitting and sleeping right up to the edge of the mattress.

Premium Visco foam materials – after the coil system, it’s the padding and fabrics that add most to the comfort of any mattress, and latex and memory foam is used widely throughout the Simmons range. The Beautyrest NxG uses advanced memory foam that is said to help with heat dissipation, keeping you cooler at night. One of the major flaws reported by memory foam mattress users has always been the fact that heat builds up throughout the night. The NxG range addresses this major issue.

Benefits

Some of the unique features that the Simmons Beautyrest mattress provides, leads to some appealing benefits for the sleeper:

The combination of the pocketed coil springs and memory foam padding leads to unsurpassed levels of motion separation. Simmons maintain their mattresses reduce movement of the foam by over 65% which means that when your partner moves during the night, you are far less likely to be disturbed by that movement.

One of the main problems with memory foam mattresses has always been the amount of heat generated created by the friction of the movement between the body and the mattresses surface. Because of the way the NxG foam is manufactured, it facilitates the movement of air around the body which ensures an ideal body temperature is maintained throughout the night.

Sleep studies have shown that if a mattress is not finished to a high standard, it can cause disrupted sleep. Because of the luxury materials, such as cashmere and silk, that are used to finish Simmons mattresses, they eliminate many of the regular complaints surrounding rougher mattress surfaces – this results in a much more comfortable night’s sleep.

The Downside

Overall, the amount of complaints we here about Simmons mattresses from their customers is fairly low. The main issue seems to be around their warranty, and it seems they can sometimes interpret their terms and conditions quite strictly. I have heard of people who’ve had their warranty claims denied for reasons such as a soiled mattress, or for something as simple as removing the tag.

I must stress that Simmons have sold millions of mattresses in the United States and any complaints come from a tiny fraction of these customers. All the grievances I have mentioned come from entirely anecdotal evidence, I myself have never experienced this.

Trawling through the reviews sites on the Internet can be a confusing experience. We’ve all heard how great memory foam is for pillows and mattresses from our friends and from retailers and manufacturers, but often in reviews there will be negative comments about odors, sagging mattresses and unresponsive foam that doesn’t get soft enough or is too soft. Sometimes it’s difficult to know what to believe. Soon we begin to realize just what a range of quality there is in these items and we need to look at the top manufacturers to see what they do to be able to compare with the rest, from an informed standpoint. Here we do that using some of the Simmons NXG mattress reviews and other manufacturer information out there.

Simmons use their advanced NXG memory foam in their Comfor-pedic range, which competes at the top end of the market. It also appears in the BeautyRest and Comfort Advantage collections. Their material is based on the original NASA foam that was developed for their astronauts as a shock-absorber during take-off and which was modified for use in mattresses by the Swedish Tempur-pedic company.

What this means is that Simmons NXG memory foam will respond well both to body-weight and body-heat, unlike some of the cheaper foams out there. Firstly it will take the weight of the body and envelop it so that it feels like you’re sleeping “inside” the mattress rather than on top of it. It shapes itself to the sleeper’s shape. Secondly, it is highly heat-sensitive so it will soften as it detects body heat and will regulate itself so that it doesn’t overheat – especially important during the summer months.

The Comfor-pedic and Comfort Advantage ranges both include mattresses with varying depths of memory foam, increasing the thicknesses as you go up the range. The top models will include latex or even a cooling gel in the top layers too, for added comfort.

Recently the Simmons BeautyRest NXG range was introduced, combining the industry-standard quality of pocket spring technology with the benefits of NXG memory foam so that sleepers get the best of both worlds: the support and the reduction of motion transfer from the robust innersprings, combined with the sensitive, heat-dissipating and body-conforming comfort of the foam. These sets also incorporate the Simmons Edge technology which expands the sleeping area and reinforces the edges when people are sitting on them, as well as the Triton foundation which creates the solid build.

Reading the reviews of these products you will begin to understand the differences between the products established manufacturers release and the ones that are put out claiming similar things at a fraction of the price. The fact is that memory foam is not always of the same quality and is not always used in sufficient quantities; and neither is the general workmanship of the mattress the same.

Simmons need little introduction if you are someone who has shopped for high quality mattresses in the past. They are one of a few enduring US manufacturers that have survived the turn of two centuries, with all the changes that has encompassed. Simmons have had to move with the times, incorporating new materials and production methods into their operations and this flexibility has served them well. Here we look specifically at the Simmons World Class mattress, from their signature BeautyRest range.

The World Class is one of the newer collection of BeautyRest mattresses to arrive on the market. As with all of this series the World Class uses pocket-springs –1000-density super pocketed coil springs, to be precise! This limits the motion transfer of the mattress, which is the advantage this series has over many of the traditional tied spring models.

Support-wise it also uses the Total Surround Edge Foam Encasement which expands the sleeping area and adds durability to the edges of the mattress – especially useful when people sit on the edge. The mattresses are designed to be non-flip, which is unusual for an innerspring model. Part of the robust design that makes this possible is from the Triton foundation and the Energy Foam support base, which add strength and stability to the model.

A Simmons BeautyRest World Class mattress achieves its reputation for comfort by using generous amounts of its premium NXG (“Next Generation”) memory foam in the upper layers of the mattress, along with natural latex rubber as an added option. This foam creates the softness and body-enveloping feel that people expect from memory foam, but which is not always provided by the cheaper, less well-made mattresses. The NXG foam is heat-sensitive and reacts well to weight so that there is no overheating even when the foam is wrapping around the body’s contours to give the luxurious feel. It also allows the model to breathe well by

The Simmons WorldClass mattresses all come with the choice of Firm, Luxury Firm, Plush, Plush/Firm and Pillow Top finishes so that you can personalize your comfort level.

The list price of these mattresses is around $2500 for a Queen size, but shopping online you will probably find one for around half this price. Within the BeautyRest range as a whole, they are positioned between the Classic and the Exceptionale in terms of price.

In Summary

Simmons have been making and selling mattresses for more than 135 years, so they must be doing something right. They make a range of mattresses to suit different needs, but the Simmons Beautyrest mattress remains the most popular model in their catalogue – prices range from around $1,000 for the Beautyrest Classic, up to around $2,500 for the Beautyrest Exceptionale mattress.

If you have ever been shopping for a mattress, either online or in bedding supply centers, you will have heard of Simmons. They are one of America’s most established mattress manufacturers and have retained their position in the leading group by being flexible enough to incorporate new designs, new materials and new technologies into their ranges at the right times, whilst consistently keeping a high standard and giving people choices. With this brand you always get a choice of finishes to the model you choose – should you opt for a Simmons plush mattress or firm mattress?

One of the most popular Simmons ranges is the BeautyRest collection, so we’ll start there. There are 5 main mattresses to look at, beginning with the Classic, then the Anniversary, the World Class, Exceptionale and the NXG. The pocketed-spring feature that defines the range is present in all 5 of the models, but the use of foam and other materials varies from set to set, as does things like the edge technology employed – that’s where your choices and budgets come in. What is consistent is that you will also have the BeautyFeel choice to make – and that’s how plush or how firm you want your mattress to be.

A Simmons BeautyRest plush set uses thinner gauge pocket-springs that yield to pressure from the upper layers that you’re sleeping on. They will also use extra foam in the upper layers of the mattress to provide an all-round softer finish to sleep on.

A firm mattress in the same set utilizes a thicker gauge of pocket-spring which resists the pressure more from above, meaning there is less “give” in it.

Then there’s the Pillow-top finish which uses multiple layers of foam attached to the upper mattress areas to really create a surface that wraps around the body, even more so than the Simmons plush feel.

These are the three main finishes but there are also degrees of plushness and firmness including Luxury Firm and Plush/Firm that may be available.

Which one you will choose comes down to advice you receive and your personal preference. If you are one of the many people who suffer back-pain then your doctor or chiropractor will need to advise you on the type of mattress you will need to relieve the symptoms. The average buyer, however, will just need to try out the Simmons BeautyRest plush mattress in the store and compare it to the firm model to see which one suits best.

Tempur-Pedic® provided the original memory foam mattresses. They were the Swedish/Danish manufacturer that took the NASA technology of memory foam, which was used to provide cushioning from the G-forces experienced during take off for shuttle astronauts, played with it and made it suitable for use in bedding and then delivered memory foam mattresses to the world a couple of decades ago.

When the Tempur® material was introduced to the US, the Tempurpedic headquarters were set up in Kentucky and engineering and manufacturing plants were set up in Virginia and New Mexico.

From this point on there were a number of other manufacturers around the world that sprung up and began imitating the Tempur material and you see today that there are many choices of memory foam ranging from cheap mattresses for a few hundred dollars to many thousands of dollars. This should tell you that there are many different qualities and standards of memory foam and while it’s still possible to get great value, cheap Tempurpedic beds, it’s becoming harder for the customer to distinguish between the real thing and the inferior models.

Nowadays Tempurpedic makes mattress toppers, bases, pillows, bed linen, cushions and other accessories, as well as the mattresses, but let’s concentrate on what you can expect from a Tempurpedic mattress set here. Basically they have been able to ward off stiff competition from around the industry by never compromising on the original quality of their memory foam models.

There are 3 collections of Tempurpedic beds to choose from, allowing you to find one that’s right feel and contouring for you. These are the Tempur-Cloud® collection, the Tempur-HD® and the Tempur® collection. While they are variations on the same theme there are some important differences.

The Tempur collection is the original range and features 5 beds ranging in price from $700 for a single up to $2200 starting price for a Double. The mattresses vary in the thicknesses and feels of their comfort layers and you will only really know which one suits your body by trying before you buy – never a bad idea with any mattress!

The Tempur-Cloud Collection has 3 mattresses ranging in starting price from $1100 – $2900. These have more of a pillow-soft feel in their upper layers than the Tempur range and use a slightly more advance Tempur-ES material, which is highly body-conforming and heat regulating.

The Tempur-HD is the top collection, using the highest grade, highest density Tempur material. The 3 mattresses in this range have a starting price ranging from $2500-6500, so you can see they represent quite an investment. The GrandBed® is the model that starts at $6500- in addition to the soft and supportive Tempur-HD feel, it uses silk and cashmere fabrics to cover it and is the height of luxury.

The investment in a Tempurpedic mattress will be sizeable, but it is backed by a 20-year limited warranty for your peace of mind. The prices of their mattresses are the same online as in the stores and they rarely have sales. A few years back the company issued strict guidelines to its retailers so that there is no under-cutting of price or free giveaways to make certain retailers more attractive. However if you look around carefully you may still find a cheap Tempurpedic bed online. Just make sure it is genuine.

If you’ve ever been in the market for a memory foam mattress then you may be familiar with the Tempur-Pedic® brand of mattresses. They’re the ones in the corner of the store with the big price tag on them that many people try out but few can afford to buy. But seeing as Tempur-Pedic beds were the original memory foam beds, it’s worth knowing more about them. Here we take a brief look at the history, the range and the tempurpedic mattress prices.

Tempurpedic Swedish/Danaish mattresses were introduced to the US in the early 1990′s after many years of research had produced a heat-regulating and body hugging foam that was suitable for use in bedding. This foam had actually been used by NASA since the 1960′s – to cushion the extreme pressures on astronauts’ bodies during take-off – as well as in the medical industry (beds for long-term patients not able to move) and sporting goods (such as the insides of helmets.) Production of memory foam was expensive back then, but in subsequent years, the methods developed, gradually brought costs down so that today there are many memory foam mattresses out there that are a third of the price of the original Tempur-Pedic mattress. So why do they still retain their good name and market share?

The answer to this is in the quality of the materials used and the manufacturing of the bed itself. Memory foam is a polyurethane based material that has other chemicals added to it in the manufacturing process, producing a foam that can vary greatly in density, heat-regulating properties and overall comfort levels. Some high quality memory foam mattresses will react well to the body temperature and envelop the body to give that hugging feel that cheaper ones cannot provide. IDF and density are two measures of memory form that you can to look out for and another variable is the cell structure of the foam which, if too tight, may not allow for good airflow through the mattress. Check labels carefully and also double-check how much memory foam is used in your mattress. The best makers like Tempur-Pedic know that less than 2 inches of memory foam will have little impact and more than 6 inches may make it too soft.

The single biggest complaint about Tempurpedic mattresses is their price. They certainly don’t come cheap and, unlike other manufacturers, there prices tend to be pretty fixed. Tempurpedic are careful to maintain the integrity of their brand so even on their web site there are firm pricing guidelines that their retailers don’t seem to deviate from.

When we look at their range we see they have about 13 beds spanning 3 main collections – the Tempur®, the Tempur Cloud® and the Tempur-HD® ranges. The Original bed – available only in Single, Twin or Double – is the most reasonably priced at $1000 for a Double mattress (not including base, frame or protector.) Most of the other mattresses are available in a large range of size including the California King and gradually increase in price until you arrive at the Tempur-HD Grand Bed® which will weigh in at over $8000 for a King Size bed including a base and protector.

You can see why people are keen to shave a bit off the price, but even online you will have a hard job finding discounted Tempurpedic mattresses. If you are lucky enough to be offered a discount by a store owner or online, be sure to check that you are getting a genuine Tempurpedic model.

Tempur-Pedic® is a brand of mattresses and beds owned, manufactured and sold by Tempur-Pedic International Inc. The brand has gained much popularity in the United States since it was introduced back in 1992. Its mattresses are widely used in many hospitals and hotels. The aim of this tempurpedic mattress reviews is to look at what makes these mattresses so special, and to help you decide whether this pressure relieving material will suit your needs.

Memory foam originates from an improvement on NASA’s research that saw the development of memory foam for the original space missions back in the 1960’s and 70’s. The Tempur-Pedic company (know as Dan Foam back then) took NASA’s original development and created a dense product that provided a very responsive and supportive sleeping surface. The foam is still, to this day, considered to be the premier quality product by industry experts and tempurpedic mattress reviewers worldwide.

So Why Are Tempurpedic Mattresses Special?

The memory foam they use is a ‘smart’ material that conforms to the shape of any object that is placed on it – even if that ‘object’ is a human body. Because of its soft, spongy properties, it has the ability to return to its normal state when the object is removed from the foam.

The clever people at Dan Foam realized that when it is used as part of a bed or a mattress, the memory foam has properties that mean the mattress will adjust to the dimensions and weight of the individual who sleeps on it. These properties ensure that weight is distributed across the entire surface of the mattress, which results in a very supportive night’s sleep.

Buying a Tempurpedic Mattress

One of the main problems when you’re buying a new mattress, is that you will not know for certain if a particular model is suitable for your needs or not, until you have spent quite some time sleeping on it. I advise people all the time to spend as much time as possible in the mattress store, lying and moving around on their preferred choice of mattress, but in all honesty, there is only so much this can tell you.

Tempurpedic has addressed this problem in the best way possible, by offering a 90 day home trial of one of their mattresses. You get to sleep on the mattress you choose for a full three months to see if it is suitable or not, and if it isn’t, the company will collect it from you free of charge. There are one or two conditions attached to this deal, so make sure you read the fine print carefully.

The Cost of Tempurpedic Mattresses

The cost of Tempurpedic mattresses is pretty standard wherever you buy them from, because the company seems to control the pricing very carefully. If you want to strike a deal, you will probably have to settle for a few extras thrown in as suppliers have very little leeway to give you a better deal.

As you can imagine, these mattress are not cheap. Prices start in the region of $1,500, and go as high as $7,000 for the GrandBed® model. For that kind of investment you would expect something quite special, and the devotees of the Tempurpedic mattress would tell you that that is exactly what you get. The best Tempurpedic mattress reviews will look at the downside as well, and there are a few points that some customers mention that are worth noting.

The Downside

It is claimed that about 90% of people who take up the Tempurpedic home trial go on to purchase a mattress – however, as you would expect, they don’t suit everyone. Some people complain of a chemical smell coming from the mattress when it is new. Others moan that they have difficulty rolling over in the night as they feel ‘trapped’ by the mattress, and finally, some customers find they get very hot during the night sleeping on this type of foam.

If the reason you are here is because you have been searching for Stearns and Foster mattress reviews, then this article should help you out. We try to give as much information about the mattresses we review as we can, while remaining impartial throughout.

A company, like Stearns and Foster, that has over 160 years of history producing and innovating new mattress technology, deserves some respect just for the fact that it has existed for so long. In my experience, no business survives, in any market for any length of time, without being in tune with their customers and providing consumers with what they want.

From a personal point of view, what frustrates me about Stearns and Fosters mattresses is the huge amount of names, ranges and sub-ranges the company uses. It is said they offer more than 1200 mattress set combinations, which is a crazy number – this criticism is not only reserved for S & F, most of the leading manufacturers are guilty of the same thing.

That being said, the majority of Stearns and Fosters mattress sets fall into 3 main categories. They have their Traditional range which are their base models and start at around $1200, their mid-range Silver Dream mattresses, and the top end Golden Elegance range that tops out at over $6000.

Because the wide range of products available, my recommendation would be to ignore all the hype, and look closely at the constituents of each mattress before you choose which one is right for you.

Features

One area where a Stearns and Foster mattress claims to be unique is in its use of their progressive support coil design. This innerspring system is said to offer a great level of support and at the same time enhancing body alignment so that your sleep experience is optimal.

The company offers 5 levels of comfort for the finish of their mattresses; Tight Top, Box Top, Euro Top, Pillow Top and Euro Pillow Top. Each level of finish has its own merits, with the Tight Top being the least expensive, up to the Box Top which is mainly seen on the more expensive mattresses. Offering a range of comfort levels has become a popular option from most manufacturers recently, but you have to remember that they can add considerably to the cost of your mattress purchase.

The Downside

When I look around at the many Stearns and Foster mattress reviews online, it doesn’t surprise me that when I find so many (after all the company is more than 160 years old). While the vast majority of reviews are positive, there are a worrying number of reviews of a similar nature. Most complaints tend to center on two things, first they come from people who claim their mattress has sagged in some way, and secondly the complaints are about how S and F deal with claims under their guarantee.

There is no doubt in my mind that S and F make very good mattresses, and as I’ve said, the vast majority of reviews are positive towards the brand – however, the negative reviews are relevant are is something I thought you should know.

Hopefully this review of Stearns and Foster mattresses has been useful to you – they have a great range of mattresses and offer some good value. As with choosing any mattress though, the final decision is yours, so take your time and try out as many as possible.

There are certain factors that are common to buying a mattress, whether you are looking at an old coil-spring model, the latest memory foam or latex models, or if you are considering an air mattress. One of the keys is to take your time and to research your purchase before committing. Though the latter might not involve quite the investment of the other types, you need to set your expectations to the level of comfort you need and how long you hope it will last, then set your budget accordingly. Like most things, there are large differences in quality between various brands and being aware of this is important in itself. This article takes a look at who might buy an air mattress and concentrates on showing you how checking some air mattress reviews and using that information to take to the store will help you choose the right one.

What is an Air Mattress?

Many of you will have stayed as a guest at a friend’s or relative’s house and use an air mattress at some point in your lives. The one I used was a double size mattress that folded up into an average sized carrier bag when it wasn’t being used. It was inflated by a foot pump in less than five minutes and the air stayed in with a small plastic stopper. The mattress had a few ridges running vertically down it and a raised area for the head to rest with the aid of a pillow. It provided a pretty comfortable night’s sleep most times.

Since that time the technology of air beds has evolved and they are no longer just the domain of camping sites and guest rooms.

Often nowadays they will come with an electric or battery pump that can inflate the bed in 90 seconds or so. Some will be as thick as a normal mattress – 22 inches in some cases – and others will be around 8 inches thick. There are raised versions which sit as high as a normal bed and other that will sit within an air mattress frame to keep them off the ground.

Many will have a non-slip underside to them, which prevents slide on a non-carpeted floor. They will often come with a custom-designed shoulder bag that makes for easy portability.

Shape-wise they may be fairly uniform or textured to prevent too much movement of the bedding. Some may have additional features to keep the sheets in place. Others may have a raised ridge around the edges to prevent the sleeper from rolling onto the floor during the night. This feature is especially useful if you are buying for kids.

Price-wise you are looking at anything from $50 or $60 up to $200 or more. Those in the upper-range may come with more accessories, like a fleecy mattress cover for example, and will usually be designed for extra comfort and be able to support a greater weight. Most should specify a maximum weight recommendation.

Advantages of an Air Bed

Nowadays there are many variations of this theme in a wide range of sizes, shapes, thicknesses and qualities. Most are inflatable, as one of their advantages is their flexibility and ease of storage. Being able to store them away is a major boon to people living in studio or one-bedroom apartments or in a house that is full of children with little floor space. Saving valuable space is a great benefit here, as they can be tucked away in a cabinet when not in use.

People who frequently entertain guests who sleep over will get enduring use out of a well-made air mattress. They are a usually lot cheaper than a normal mattress or sofa bed, so they save money as well as space.

They are also great ideas for kids’ slumber parties. Again, pulling them out of the closet and inflating them takes very little time and a child can usually do it.

Another benefit is that because there is no “filling” to them (you are sleeping on air), there is less risk of allergic reactions to the material. Of course on top of the mattress you usually place a sheet and comforter, and you can use your normal pillows, so other than that there is really nothing to be concerned about if you are an asthma suffer or a dust mite allergy, for example.

Many air beds are waterproof – an obvious advantage if you are using it for camping. Also, of course, if the kids spill their drinks on it you are not left with too much of a sticky situation to clean up, as you might be with a normal mattress.

Finally, air mattresses allow you to control firmness, by inflating or deflating them. This makes them flexible and usually a level can be found that will be comfortable for most sleepers.

If you are Considering an Air Mattress?

First consider what you will be using it for and who will be sleeping on it.

If you’re buying it for very occasional use for kids sleeping over, then you needn’t opt for a top of the range model. Perfectly good ones are available at half the price and will do the job.

If you frequently have 2 adults using the mattress then you will need to choose a higher specification, with a higher weight capacity. You will want to make sure you get a good pump also, as otherwise it will be more hassle to be constantly inflating and deflating the bed.

If you will be using it yourselves for camping or when you visit, it may be important for you to buy one that packs easily away into a good shoulder bag, whereas if it is to be used only at home this may not be necessary.

Similarly, if you are camping you probably want your air bed raised off the ground. This is where the previously-mentioned air mattress frame comes in. These frames come in variety of designs and strengths and can be more expensive than the mattress, but it’s important not to skimp on budget for these items as you need a sturdy support structure if you are raising your bed, for obvious reasons!

Lastly on this subject, a word of warning – there are not many air mattresses that will react well to pets’ claws digging into their surface, so if you have pets then you will need to make sure they cannot access the bed when it’s inflated. Cats especially like to dig their claws into bedding. If this is likely to happen then try to find one made out of extra strong materials by reading reviews from other cat owners.

Do you need a full size air mattress or will a smaller one do the job?Of course who will be using it also affects the size. For a couple of young children you will probably get the best value from a twin air mattress set. Two grown adults will prefer either a queen size air mattress or a king size air mattress set.

So when we ask the question “what is the best air mattress?” it does really depend on its intended use and its future sleepers. As always, it’s probably best to avoid the really cheap ones as they can develop holes and need repairing very quickly. The more expensive ones will generally be made of more durable materials and will stand the test of time better.

Checking the Reviews and Buying Online

You will find plenty of online reviews about air mattresses. The same applies to these as to other reviews – they are best used as guides to asking the right questions before you buy. They should not always be taken literally as marketers often use them to plant information intended to make you buy their brand as opposed to another one. Find a good site that offers balanced information and make a note of the points that will help you decide on the type you need.

If there are particular manufacturers that interest you then you can always look at their Home pages and see what other information you can find out. See what their claims are and whether they are borne out by the reviews.

The best idea is always to use the “acid test” of lying down on your chosen mattress before committing. If possible get the person who will be using it to take the test and see if they find it comfortable.

You will probably find that the main mattress manufacturers that you know and love do not make air beds. Coleman, Intex, Wenzel, Texsport, and AeroBed are some of the biggest names specializing in these items and they will normally offer a better guarantee of quality than other no-name mattresses.

Buying online may save you money. You can buy air mattresses from normal bedding supply sites or even on places like Amazon. Make sure you select a well-respected site and that warranties are provided with the products. You can usually arrange payment and delivery there and then.

Summary

Choosing the right inflatable air mattress is not something to be rushed. A poorly made one can turn into an embarrassment with guests, or worse. You should budget for one that will serve its intended purpose, so you first need to consider the build of people who will be using it as well as how often it will be used. Many variations in sizes, thicknesses, textures, pumps and accessories such as bags and frames exist amongst the various ranges, so be sure to know exactly what you are getting by doing some prior research of the products on offer.

Tempur-Pedic® memory foam mattresses were the first of their kind to come into the American market. Nowadays there are many other memory foam products that have aimed to grab a share of the market, with varying degrees of success. Many emulations of the initial form have been incorporated into ranges by manufacturers who used to only provide the innerspring mattresses and many are at cheaper prices, so we ask are Tempurpedic prices worth the extra expense?

Firstly let’s qualify “extra expense”, because there is a large range of prices associated with these mattresses and other manufacturers (like Sealy, for example) do make very expensive memory foam mattresses too, starting at $2000 for a queen size.

With Tempurpedic mattress prices we start at $1400 for a basic queen mattress going up to $6500 – so it is the top of the range that we are talking about when we mention the expense. A king size in the same range is $7200.

What do you get for $6500? Well for starters you do only get the mattress. There are optional extras, such as a mattress protector, bed frame or adjustable base that will add up to another $700 on top of the original price.

The GrandBed® model we are referring to here uses quilted dual comfort layers of their patented Tempur-HD® material (they don’t call it “memory foam” as this differentiates it from the cheaper alternatives in the market place.) It’s claimed that this material provides a superb cushion that molds to the contours of your body, while also allowing the mattress to breathe and maintain temperature control via sufficient air-flow. It returns to its initial shape after usage – something which many manufacturers of cheaper memory foam mattresses claim, but which sometimes doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

The 15” model is made in three layers – the first being a comfort layer of 2” of Tempur-HD and a 1.2” layer of Tempur. Secondly there is a Support layer of 4” of Tempur material; the base layer is 8” of Grand Airflow System material. You can see that serious design work has gone into these models and that’s partly what you’re paying for with the higher Tempurpedic mattress prices.

This mattress is billed as the height of pampering and provides a luxurious feel – not only with the filling it uses, but also in the silk-cashmere blend of the cover and the diamond-embossed micro-suede used on the sides.

Unlike most innerspring mattresses the Tempurpedic range will not need turning to maintain a good shape. One of the problems with the cheaper mattresses is that they still experience sagging over time – a sign that the design, craftsmanship and materials are not up to par.

These mattresses are also allergen and dust-mite free – another problem that some of the poorly-made copies will not guarantee.

Coming back to the original question in the title of this article, to justify spending the Tempurpedic price on a mattress you would have to really be living in luxury and wanting to spoil yourself. However, if it lasts 20 years then work out what the mattress costs per day and it’s not at all bad! We have picked the top of the range to look at but Tempurpedic do make a lot of more reasonably-priced mattresses that will suit the comfort requirements – and the pockets – of most people looking for a quality memory foam mattress.

The bedding market is flooded with so many different styles, designs and qualities of mattresses to choose from. When it comes to our new born babies, who spend most of their time on their backs sleeping or resting, any assistance we can get with providing maximum comfort and functionality for their sleeping arrangements is welcome. Here we show you what your options are and how to use crib mattress reviews to research beforehand, so you increase the chances of buying the right one. As ever, there is a wealth of possibilities.

Traditional Crib Beds

Babies will typically sleep in a special miniature-sized infant bed up until the age of about 3 years. The sides of the crib will have no footholds and are vertical, making it almost impossible for the baby to get out of, which is obviously critical. They also prevent unwanted visitors like pets from getting in. At the same time these beds are designed to prevent accidents to the baby inside the crib, making sure that there are no places for the infant to trap their hands or head.

When the baby grows into a toddler the bed will also become somewhere to play, so this is an important element when considering which mattress to buy.

Crib Mattresses – Important!

A crib mattress will fit inside the frame of the bed. The most important components are inside the mattress and essentially visible so it is always vital to read the specifications detailed by the manufacturer.

You will find that a lot of the major manufacturers that design standard Kids and Adult mattresses will include a range of crib mattresses too. Other household-name manufacturers, specializing in baby products, will also include a range.

Your baby’s health is going to be the most important concern in your life. The first thing we need to ensure is that the mattress we choose is aiding, not harming, that health. So when considering the materials that your mattress is made from, let’s first state the obvious – make sure the chemicals used to treat the materials are non-toxic. This will be a given for the major manufacturers who have to adhere to strict safety regulations imposed in the US, but it is not necessarily the case for those purchased abroad.

The same applies for fire-retardancy. Whilst this is important for standard mattresses it becomes critical for crib versions.

Materials Used

Nowadays most of them are made from foam, coil-springs or organic material. A good foam crib mattress will be made of a firm type of foam that retains its shape well. The best ones now combine elastic and firm memory foam into the filling, which takes the weight of the baby well, provides comfort by molding well to the body and goes back to its former shape when the weight is taken off.

The organic crib mattress is becoming a popular choice as it avoids some of the potentially dangerous chemicals that can cause allergies, skin complaints or respiratory problems for your baby.

As recently as 2009, new guidelines were released in the USA, for the use of a particular chemical in crib mattresses. One of the most commonly used organic materials is wool, because of its natural flame retardant qualities. It contains no artificial additives and it allows for good “breathability” and temperature when the baby is asleep. It will also not develop any mould or mildew. Other organic varieties of these mattresses will be a blend of wool, cotton and rubber, with the latter material adding firmness.

The Firmness of Your Mattress

There needs to be a combination of comfort and firmness for your infant. An easy test you can do with a foam crib mattress if to see if you can bend it in half. If you can, then it probably doesn’t have the necessary firmness. If you can hardly bend it at all then it is too firm. One thing that parents often miss is that a mattress that won’t bend much is less likely to create pockets where suffocation can be an issue.

Other Features to Look Out For

There is such a thing as a “standard size” to crib mattresses, which should match the standard size of your crib, but be a little careful and measure before you buy to avoid any problems. Most should measure around 51.5 inches long by 27.2 inches wide, but slight variations can occur. The depth of a foam mattress should be between 4 and 6 inches, and a spring one should be between 5 and 6 inches. A common check that mothers can perform is to check if two fingers fit between the mattress and the crib’s edge. If you can fit the fingers, then the mattress is a little small.

The shape of the mattress should be such that the sheets do not fall off as the baby wriggles around, so check that the corners are clear-cut.

Weights of crib mattresses can vary. For normal mattresses this is not such an issue but single mothers, especially, will want to make sure they have one that they can easily lift up for the regular changing of sheets that is normally required.

Sometimes the manufacturer will claim that the mattress is anti-bacterial, which means that it has been chemically treated. This may or may not be a feature you are looking for, but given that the child will wet himself anyway you might be better off just investing in a good waterproof cover (see below.)

Crib Mattress Covers

Crib mattresses are usually sold with covers, which slip over them under the sheet and help protect the mattress from all of the messy situations a baby will get themselves into. These can be made of vinyl, which is waterproof and easy to wipe clean and the best ones will be well-made with double stitching for extra durability and non-allergenic.

Portable Crib Mattresses

Some parents find it very useful to buy a secondary, portable crib mattress, in addition to the main one that will be used at home. This will usually be a cheaper version of the main one, as it will be for occasional use at grandmother’s house or when your baby visits aunties or uncles. Your baby will feel relaxed if it is similar to the one at home, so take care in choosing this and ensure that all the key safety features we have mentioned are included. For your own benefit you will need to balance the needs of your infant with the ease of carrying it from place to place, so you won’t want a very heavy model, or one that is too bulky.

How to Find the Best Crib Mattress for You

Well the age-old practice of shopping around will get you far, but not unless you have researched the topic beforehand. This article has scratched the surface of the type of things that you need to look at when choosing a baby’s mattress but there is far more detailed information available freely on manufacturer’s web sites, blogs about mother and baby care and on review sites. The key is to know what you want in terms of materials, firmness and other features.

Scanning a few of these types of sites will leave you with a list of factors to consider before making your choice. Many of these you may not even have occurred to you as important. You will probably have questions and that’s great. At least you are doing your thinking beforehand instead of regretting your lack of thought a bit later.

A word about some of the review sites – if you are looking for technical analysis of the mattresses from professionals then make sure you find one that knows what they are talking about. The same applies to customer comments – not all are genuine customers and they are from people paid to put reviews up to promote a particular brand. Don’t take them too literally.

You may have been recommended a particular brand or already know what you’re getting for your money. In this case you’ll probably be comfortable with shopping around online for the best deal on one or tow particular items. If not, then you might like to touch and feel the mattress in a bedding center or mother and baby products store. That way you can perform a few of the simple “touch” tests on the mattresses and ask the salespeople the questions that you have. You can always go back online afterwards and make your purchase.

Online retailers will usually offer greater savings than brick and mortar stores. Check for promotions and sales of items that are not the latest models. This is a good way to pick up bargains, but ensure that it is an established site with good ordering, payment and delivery processes, as well as warranty provisions.

Summary

Buying a baby crib mattress will involve more reading up than buying a conventional mattress because it is not only a child’s comfort at stake but also their safety and your own workload. A poorly chosen one can be a danger and also mean that you are forever changing bedding and cleaning. Research the features, find out what you need, fix an approximate budget and then identify a few candidates to test before buying.

There are times when we can cut corners a little and opt for a cheap mattress – maybe for the attic or the basement or the kids’ rooms. However, one of those times is definitely not when we are looking for a mattress for our expected new arrival. Here we need to do our research with some online baby crib mattress reviews and information from the quality online retailers; so that we know what we are buying is not a danger to the health or safety of our baby.

Tips for Choosing the Right Crib Mattress

There are a few tips new can use for finding the right baby crib mattress as we are organizing the room for the new arrival. Firstly, if you have already purchased the crib make sure that you measure it carefully. Although there are standard sizes for both crib and mattress in the US, sometimes they don’t match exactly. This is important as any gaps between the edge of the mattress and the sides of the crib can be a problem for catching little limbs. As a general rule there should not be more of a gap than the width of an adult finger.

The firmness of the mattress is crucial too. As you are looking at items in the stores check how much you can bend them. They should not be soft enough to bend in half so that the ends meet – this is a simple enough test that anyone can do. A little “give” is necessary, but too much and it can create suffocation pockets for your child, so you should choose one that is firm enough.

The materials used in your mattress are also essential to consider. Even as recently as 2009, the US government released new safety regulations regarding the use of a certain chemical in crib mattresses. Sometimes the overseas manufacturers, in an effort to drive down production costs, will use new chemicals that aren’t closely regulated and it takes a while for standards to be adjusted. Make sure you know the exact material composition of your mattress and its cover before you commit.

Many people, because of the above issue, avoid the foams and opt for organic materials. These can be a mixture of wool, cotton and latex (which helps to provide the necessary firmness.) This gets around the problem of potentially dangerous chemicals and wool and cotton blends also allow the mattress to breathe. Wool is also naturally fire-retardant, which is another important requirement of these mattresses.

With babies spending most of their time on their backs it’s tempting to try to find the most comfortable mattress possible, but remember the important safety measures we must take. Also remember that your baby will grow quickly into a toddler and the crib will soon become a play-pen. That means we must balance comfort with durability. A lively toddler can wreak havoc in a crib bouncing up and down on a poorly-made mattress.

How Reviews Can Help

As we use the crib mattress reviews and mother and baby blogs to help in our online research of these items, it becomes evident that going cheap with these items rarely turns out well. Making the right investment in the right quality manufacturer generally works well – normally an established manufacturer that’s been making these items for decades. They know how to make them safe, comfortable and durable for your baby.

The best crib mattress reviews will answer most of your questions about safety first and foremost. If they are not addressing your primary concern then they are unlikely to be of use for your other, lesser concerns. They will concentrate on a number of different manufacturers (not just one manufacturer – these tend to be very slanted reviews) and highlight your choice of materials. They should give you some general buying guidelines to help you make the right decision. Maybe they will have a system of crib mattress ratings, like on Amazon. These can be useful if they are kept up to date, but you need to check whether this is the case and also who is rating the mattresses.

Investing Time in Your Child’s Safety with Baby Mattress Reviews

Rare are the times that you will see us recommending bedding products based upon a cheap price alone and never is this more the case than with crib mattresses. Usually if we make a bad purchase it will affect our night’s sleep and maybe cost us money for a replacement mattress, but with these items it can be a lot more serious as the health and safety of your child is at stake. As ever, taking the time to do your homework beforehand with the online baby mattress reviews and other resources can help you.

How to Choose a Safe and Comfortable Crib Mattress

Parents need to balance the safety and comfort aspects when shopping for a crib mattress and knowing what to look for is the first step. With all the choice, the variety of US and overseas manufacturers and all the different materials used nowadays where do you start?

Safety – that’s the place to start. There are some basics to follow here.

Firstly, size is important! Although, in theory, there are standard crib sizes that should match standard baby mattresses in practice this isn’t quite the case. If you are buying crib and mattress as a set then all well and good, but if you buy one for before the other remember to take careful measurements of both. Any gaps around the edge of the mattress, between it and the railings, can be safety hazards for your baby’s little limbs and digits. Remember also that babies roll and they can get stuck in gaps, causing breathing problems or worse.

Secondly the firmness of your mattress is crucial. As a general rule if you can bend it in half then it’s too soft. Some cheaper foam mattresses may seem comfortable but they can create hazardous suffocation pockets for your baby so make sure you get one that’s firm enough. A little bend-ability is enough.

Thirdly, what materials are used in the mattress? Make sure you know the exact composition as some of the cheaper items have, in the past, been found to use potentially toxic substances. Generally the top manufacturers will stick well within Health and Safety guidelines, but if you are in any doubt you may want to opt for a 100% organic mattress. These usually use combinations of materials like wool, cotton and latex. Between them they will have the necessary qualities of firmness, breath-ability and fire retardancy that are necessary for these items.

Once you have considered all the safety aspects you will want to think about durability and maintenance of your mattress too. You might think that, because babies lie on their backs most of the time, that a crib mattress doesn’t need to be particularly hard-wearing but perhaps you are forgetting that babies quickly grow into toddlers…and toddlers like to stand on the mattress, gripping the railings of the crib and bounce up and down! Save yourself the problem of replacing your torn mattress by buying a well-made one from the start.

Turning to Reviews for Assistance

A good example of where information in crib mattress reviews can help with your decision was when I was looking for advice about the cover of the crib mattress. A comment in one of the reviews suggested buying a separate cover that you can wipe down when the baby inevitably wets the bed. That way you don’t need to worry too much about buying a mattress with an already-waterproofed and anti-bacterial surface (involving the use of chemicals again.) This suggestion seemed to make a lot of sense but, without checking out the online resources, I would never have made the connection.

The best baby mattress reviews will offer independent advice and useful tips on all the safety and comfort aspects of the items in question, helping you to really find what you are looking for, not pushing you to buy a particular brand.

In the world of mattresses, two of the newest kids on the block are the memory foam mattress, and the latex mattress. At first glance they may seem like they are very similar products, and in many ways they are, but when it comes to the latex Vs memory foam mattress comparison, there are some important differences that customers need to be aware of in order to make the right choice for them.

To start off, memory foam is a man-made material, while latex is a natural product – although just to add to the confusion a little, there is also processed latex which is more often used in cheaper latex mattresses and, in my opinion, is best avoided.

Memory foam mattresses are sensitive to body heat, and have a much softer feel to them than latex mattresses. They tend to be far more malleable than their latex counterparts, and become softer as you lie on them and they ‘adapt’ to your body position as they begin to warm up. You will notice this more when you first lie on your mattress, it will feel firm initially, but will start to ‘work’ properly when it starts to react to your body temperature.

Memory Foam Mattresses

If you think that a memory foam mattress might be right for you, there are a few things you need to consider. Firstly is the quality or density of the mattress you are looking at, as with most things in life, you get what you pay for and it’s no different with memory foam. The denser the foam, the higher the quality of the mattress, and as it is much more expensive to manufacture the denser foams, these tend to be much more expensive. You can buy cheaper memory foam, and it might sound like a good deal at the time, but you won’t get the same level of support and I’m hearing stories of people who’ve had to replace the cheaper mattresses after as little as 3 years of use.

Next, and most importantly, you need to consider comfort – the main factor that makes a memory foam mattress comfortable, is the level of support it gives you. You can easily check whether a mattress is offering you enough support by lying flat on your back and trying to slide a flat hand beneath the small of your back. If you can do this easily, this is probably not the mattress for you.

Thickness of the memory foam is the final element to base your decision on. Ideally the memory foam should be between 4 and 6 inches thick if it is too thin, parts of your body may end up in contact with the supporting base of high resiliency foam material which is not meant to be slept on – if this happens, you will probably find yourself in discomfort. Anything thicker than 6 inches may be too soft, which again can lead to discomfort.

Latex Mattresses

Latex_MattressMany people prefer latex over memory foam because it is a natural product and has hypo-allergenic and anti-microbial properties. When you add to this the fact that a latex mattress is virtually indestructible and it doesn’t share the problems of dust mites and fungus that a standard mattress might suffer from, you can perhaps see why they are thought of as the healthier option.

Comfort levels are excellent with this type of mattress, they are firm to the touch, but allow the feeling of motion more than a memory foam mattress. The best description I have heard describing the qualities of this type of mattress, is that they are like a “mattress cover filled with jello” – and in my opinion that is the perfect description of how it feels to sleep on a latex mattress.

You can find hundreds of articles written about each type of mattress, and I would encourage you to read some of them if you are still undecided, but when it comes to the latex Vs memory foam mattress comparison, my choice would be the latex mattress. I would choose one of them not because I think they are any more comfortable, but overall the natural qualities of the latex wins through for me.

Happy shopping……..

Latex is a material that has been increasingly used in mattress-making for the last decade and more. Most of the leading manufacturers use it in their ranges now. It’s a naturally occurring rubber that is well known for the support qualities it provides in mattresses and it has become popular because of this and its benefits of durability, allowing the mattress to breathe and the cushioning it provides. Like with everything it is not without its down sides and here we take a look at some of the more common latex mattress complaints.

We should preface this by saying that latex mattresses generally receive praise and good ratings from previous users in terms of its balance between softness and support, its excellent containment of motion, its assistance for those suffering back pain and allergies, as well as its durability. The complaints we list are not typical for everyone. This should not be surprising as there is a price premium you pay for choosing a latex composition, which suggests that it is both a sought after item and effective in what it does. This has been the case in our findings, as a general rule.

Premature sagging has been a complaint of these mattresses, but perhaps more commonly in lower-end models. Also a related complaint from some users is that impressions of the body are left on the mattress. Both of these problems can be addressed by regular turning and flipping of the mattress, which redistributes the areas receiving the weight and ensures that all of the mattress gets used.

Odors are reported by some users too. This is only usually an initial odor that disperses with use. A little bit of preparation is necessary to address this problem – making sure that the mattress is aired in a well-ventilated room before usage (maybe for up to a week, if possible) is the best solution.

The online latex mattress reviews also point to them being very heavy. Latex is a dense substance so that a high usage will make the model considerably heavier than a foam or innerspring mattress. This means that it will be a “2-man job” to regularly flip and turn a Queen or King size latex model.

A couple of other things to watch out for if you are considering one of these items:

Firstly the seams, these occur because the latex sheets inside the mattress are glued together. This won’t be a problem in the better ranges but can be a problem in cheaper mattresses as the seams can be uncomfortable to lie on.

Secondly latex mattresses are expensive. They generally start from $1000 upwards, which means that you have to be completely “sold” on the benefits of latex before you are willing to pay the premium for using it. At the moment it is still perceived as being an exclusive and high-end material. This may change as time goes on, but users are sometimes harsh on latex mattresses because they have paid 20% more for them than other similar quality mattresses.

If your home is not big enough for a spare room for people to sleep over but you want to be able to offer visiting friends a place to rest their head at nights, you may find a twin air mattress is a great solution for you.

These items are inflatable beds, measuring around 39 inches wide × 75 to 80 inches, which can be packed away when not being used, then brought out and inflated as needed. Nowadays they are very easy and convenient to use as they often come with an electric or battery-operated pump that will inflate the mattress in a few minutes or less. So, if you keep it in the closet with a twin bed in a bag , you can just add a pillow and a comforter and you have a bed ready for your guest in no time!

Of course the space saving element of these mattresses is attractive for those living in apartments, but they have been made more and more comfortable over the years that some people choose these items as their permanent bed in their main bedroom and nowadays they come in all sizes – even Kings! Gone are the days when this was just a camping bed for the “softer” campers who didn’t like the ground-sheet and sleeping bag concept; now they can be serious beds.

Over the years the twin size air mattress has evolved with new, more comfortable materials used on the sleeping surface of the mattress – softer and more capable of holding the sheets in place (which was a problem with the early air mattresses) – as well as non-slip additions to the underside which means they can be used on tiled floors without too much migration in the middle of the night!

Air mattresses are usually made by specialist manufacturers, not the conventional mattress companies (excluding the likes of Sleep Number which use an adjustable air-chamber mattress for their beds.) They might be camping and outdoor specialists for example. Some names you will come across when searching for these items will be Intex, Coleman, Cabela, Aero International or Texsport. You will also come across frames that can be used to raise the mattress off the ground, but these are normally used for camping.

Of course, the other major benefit of these beds, apart from the convenience and space-saving, is that they are usually cheap. You can pick up one of these items online for just $15 or $20 for the most basic vinyl item. They can go up to $700 or 800 for the King size mattresses with all the whistles and bells, but if you are looking for a reasonably comfortable twin size item as a spare bed $50 to $80 will get you a decent standard.

With so many different sizes, shapes, materials, comfort and robustness levels, choosing a mattress can be a testing task these days. One material that has seen recent popularity as a choice of filling is memory foam and here we take a look at what it is, some of the reasons for its rise to prominence and the type of information you should be looking for when reading the memory foam mattress reviews out there, before you decide to buy.

Background

Memory foam is a material that was originally developed for astronauts to use in space, because of its unique cushioning qualities. Even 40 years ago, NASA used it to provide protection for the body against ultra g-force. Whilst the foam used in mattresses does not need to be of the same robustness as this, it is still related, and it’s surprising actually how many of our every day materials trace back to NASA.

Its explosion into the bedding market is far more recent, mainly due to a Swedish bedding company that refined the memory foam into a usable material and because the manufacturing process has become far more efficient and economical. This has produced a material that is designed to mold to the contours of our bodies and not to heat up when we lie on it.

Nowadays memory foam mattresses sit side by side with the traditional inner-coil spring ones, in the same ranges from all the major manufacturers, no longer priced through the roof.

Know the Qualities of Memory Foam before you Buy

It’s important to recognize exactly what the material is and how its various quality levels will differ, so that when you read the reviews and come to test a memory foam mattress in the store you will know more about what to look (and feel) for.

It is formed from polyurethane which, when mixed with other chemicals, produces the non-toxic visco-elastic foam we know as memory foam. However there are different grades and these will affect the qualities of the mattress it produces.

The rating system used is the ILD, or Indentation Load Deflection (sometimes called the IFD or Indentation Force Deflection), which will tell you how firm or soft your mattress is going to be – basically, the higher the ILD, the firmer the mattress. Mostly you will see a range quoted, rather than a set figure, and this can be used as a guideline.

Your personal preference on the firmness of your mattress will probably only be decided when you test it out in-store, but recognizing this rating system helps you to narrow your selection to one that will suit you. Many of the best memory foam mattresses have a memory foam topper with a lower rating and a base layer of foam with a higher ILD to provide a balance between the comfort and the support elements most people are looking for.

Questions to Ask

Before buying, customers need to know exactly what they are looking for from their mattress. Some common questions that need to be asked are: What will you use the mattress for? How often will you use the mattress? What are your expectations in terms of comfort? Do you have a condition that you are trying to help or do you have poor posture? Where will the mattress be put – in the main bedroom, the guest room or in a child’s room? Do you have allergies to certain materials? How much do you want to spend? How long do you want it to last?

Some Common Complaints with Memory Foam Mattresses

However, there are some complaints that do seem to occur from time to time, especially with cheap memory foam mattresses.

These usually center on odors coming from the mattress, sagging, heating-up with prolonged use, or the price people have to pay.

When you first buy your mattress, it is quite likely that it will have an odor that can fill the room. This usually lasts just a few days or, at most, a few weeks, but this complaint can be mitigated by ensuring that the room is well-aired. If it is summertime, you may want to sleep with the windows open. Most people can work around this minor issue.

Sagging can occur with all mattresses over time. A good memory foam one should last the distance well but one made from a lower quality material may experience this common phenomenon. Read the reviews and educate yourself about the chances of sag, before buying.

The better mattresses limit the heat build up that can be experienced with memory foam by using a “coolmax” fabric which allows “breathing” to occur. Thereby body moisture is dissipated more easily than by using cheaper fabrics and this helps to keep temperatures down.

The cheapest memory foam mattresses are always susceptible to promising more than they deliver. Read reviews and these will usually highlight the potential problems. Usually if you are buying a memory foam item you are already expecting to pay a little more than you would for a spring mattress, but being aware there are different qualities of memory foam will prepare you well when you decide on a budget. Perhaps you will want to add a few dollars to ensure that you get the comfort and longevity that you expect from it. Yes, bargains can be had, especially online or via seasonal sales in bedding centers, but make sure that you know what you are getting.

Other Variables of Memory Foam Mattresses

Of course, like all types, memory foam mattresses are now made in all the relevant sizes. Most of the manufacturers will have a guide to sizes on their web sites, defining all the terms they use and providing exact specifications of each item in their ranges. Make sure you have measured your room carefully, especially if you are thinking of upgrading size, so that you know what you’re after.

A King Size Memory Foam Mattress will usually measure around 80 x 76 inches and a Queen memory foam mattress will be around 80 x 60 inches, but be careful of variations to this.

Another thing to watch out for is the design of your mattress. If it is one with a topper, as is the current trend, then this will be the single biggest factor deciding the comfort level of your sleeping experience. This is where the memory foam rating really comes in, so check for the thickness and qualities of this layer, rather than the overall thickness of the mattress. It’s where the true “intelligence” of the mattress will be judges.

Underneath this top layer will be the support layers in the bulk of the mattress “body”. The “density” rating you will see mentioned is not referring to this, but to the upper layer where the expensive memory foam is placed.

Knowing this can help you differentiate between the claims of the superior ones and the cheaper mattresses that may promise similar things.

Another thing to watch out for is the exact material composition of your mattress. Some models will be advertised as memory foam but, in reality, they only contain a small percentage of relatively poor-quality memory foam. Others at the top end of the price range may be mixed with latex, for extra springiness, for which you may pay a premium.

Some people get the benefits of memory foam without investing in a whole mattress, by buying just a topper for their existing mattress. This can work well, and certainly saves costs, but the same rules apply to choosing the right one carefully. Also, they are not miracle-workers and can’t turn an old, worn out mattress into a sleeping paradise. Be realistic about your expectations, as ever.

Recommended Approach to Buying

With so many things to think about when buying a new mattress some people find it useful to have an action plan. We suggest a few steps to the process.

You may already have a favorite brand; if this is the case then be sure to visit their web site to see the full range of options. There should be lots of good information there, relating to their specific mattresses, as well as general information.

If you don’t have a brand in mind then a good place to start might be with some mattress review sites so that you can get an idea of the options available. Don’t necessarily take these reviews, or the customer comments there, literally, as they may not even be real customers, but at least this process will get you asking the right questions to yourself about what you are expecting and what some of the potential pitfalls are. The best reviews sites will combine some analytical review with anecdotal additions from existing customers.

Next you can check prices of the mattresses on your shortlist (maybe 4 or 5 would be good at this stage). Check at a reputable online dealer so you know that these items will fit within your budget.

Then you are ready to go to the bedding store. You have a shortlist of mattresses you want to try out and you know enough information to have a meaningful exchange with the salespeople there. You may have a list of questions to ask, which is great. Then you can try out the ones you are interested in, making a note of any other ones you like the feel of – exact names and specifications.

You should not feel guilty about walking out of the store without buying. Some people like the extra “security” of buying from a “brick and mortar” store, rather than online, but they will probably end up paying more.

Once back in the comfort of your own home you can source the best price for the exact King memory foam mattress from Sealy or Englander that you tried and liked, for example. You may have your heart set on one, or yet to decide between a few that you liked. Online discounts can be quite a saving from prices you will be quoted by other retailers, but always check warranties and secure payment procedures. Buy from only the best online bedding sites that have been recommended to you.

Summary

Two of the main benefits of using memory foam mattresses are the comfort and support levels they can provide, making them the natural replacement to the traditional coil mattresses and the more basic foam ones. A mattress is an investment that should be in our home for many years ahead, so there are definitely a few steps we should go through to make sure we buy the right one. Rushing it may result in a cheap, buckled mattress sitting on the lawn outside our home in a couple of years.

Shopping for a crib mattress may be a team effort between mother and father and both have a role to play, as it’s not a simple purchase. There are things that need to be considered like measurements, firmnesses and materials that go beyond the mere comfort and support that we think about when buying a mattress for ourselves, but will affect the health, well-being and safety of your child. Parents are increasingly leaning towards natural materials for their babies, away from potentially toxic artificial materials and finding some decent organic crib mattress reviews to help us choose is a good first step.

Before we get to the actual materials all crib mattress buying guidelines should point out a few things. Firstly, the importance of getting the right size of mattress, and secondly the importance of finding one of the right firmness. Both relate to safety – the first because no gaps should be left between the mattress and the railings of the crib for things (or body parts) to get trapped in; the second because if the mattress is too soft it represents a suffocation risk to a baby because of the air pockets that can potentially be created.

These guidelines should be addressed first and foremost if the review site is serious about giving you the necessary information to make a good purchase.

An organic crib mattress, as its name suggests, should be made of 100% natural fibers which have conformed to the growing guidelines set down for organic produce. Some of the mattresses may contain cotton, wool and latex, but the plants, sheep and trees that thee materials have come from may not have been grown or reared organically. So this is the first thing that the individual manufacturer should address. Are you getting Organic or are you getting Natural?

The truly organic crib mattresses advertise not only their toxin-free mattresses but their manufacturers’ ecologically sound approach. More chemicals than we would care to imagine go into the making of the average mattress and its comforting for parents to know that their baby will be sleeping on a surface that contains no potentially harmful substances and which hasn’t harmed the environment either. There have been cases highlighted in the media where parents have blamed chemicals in their baby’s mattresses for some side-effects their child has suffered.

Reading some crib mattress reviews online will point to the fact that organic mattresses may be a little more difficult to maintain than others. You will need to use a cover or pad so that when the baby’s mess needs to be cleaned up you can just wipe down the cover rather than the whole mattress. Buying an organic mattress but a chemically treated cover defeats the object a little so you will have to ensure the cover is organic and waterproof too. These pads, often made out of absorbent cotton layers (using no vinyl) can usually be bought in the same place as the mattress and are normally machine-washable and dryable.

Remember that very soon your baby will have grown into a toddler so when you are checking the reviews see how robust your crib mattress is going to be. Will it be strong enough not only to provide a safe and comfortable sleeping surface but also act as a play surface for a year or two? Buying a well-made and durable mattress is advisable anyway, as you may have more children and be able to re-use the mattress once your baby has grown out of it.

Hypnia is a UK mattress manufacturer that has built its reputation by specializing in making high quality memory foam models. We will examine the manufacturer and their models below.

The company makes its own memory foam – which is often not the case with memory foam mattress makers, who will import their foam from overseas. Therefore they have control over the quality and can state confidently that they use dense, 75Kg/CBM memory foam that will do what the label says it will do. It is one of the highest densities in the industry, in fact. If you have read up on memory foam and read some reviews then you should be aware that memory foam is not all the same – its quality, characteristics and performance can vary greatly across brands and that is why you’ll see quite a price differential between the top manufacturers, specializing in quality, and the rest.

Hypnia mattresses all feature the “reflex base” layer upon which the memory foam layers will sit – effectively the foundation and support levels of the mattress otherwise provided by the coils in inner-spring mattresses. The memory foam layer on top will usually be 2 or 3 inches and will provide the comfort and body conformity, as well as heat-responsiveness that the best memory foams will provide. Finally the removable cover layer completely encloses the foam layers of the mattress; this is termed “CoolSoft” and uses velour, being designed to keep temperatures down as well as give a luxurious soft feel to the finish of the mattress. It zips off easily for washing.

The Hypnia mattress comes in 3 basic types, depending on the level of support you need: gentle support, stability and full cushioning and which one you choose will affect the amount of memory foam used in the mattress. There is a 1-inch memory foam option in their Simplicity range and 2 or 3 inches of memory foam in their Advanced ranges. All of the memory foam used will have the same cushioning and heat-regulating properties, as well as being ant-bacterial and dust mite free. The sizes of their mattresses include Single, Double, King Size and Super King Size (6′ x 6’6″) – strangely there is no Queen size available.

Hypnia also produce several memory foam mattress toppers if you want the benefits of memory foam but already have an existing mattress that has kept a decent shape. They also sell other bedding accessories like covers and pillows at their online stores.

Buying Hypnia mattresses online will certainly save you money on the store prices. Make sure you check your specs well and choose an online retailer that is reputable, with good selection, order, payment and delivery procedures. You should also expect a 10 year manufacturer guarantee.

Memory foam has created quite a buzz around the mattress-making circles, so much so that the leading manufacturers have all found it necessary to include it in their ranges, such is the demand nowadays. There are also a lot of other makers who have jumped on the bandwagon since Tempur-pedic first introduced the NASA-inspired foam into the bedding market, meaning there is a vast array of different models available and there are great differences in memory foam mattress prices out there. It can all be a little confusing and it’s important to know what we’re getting for our money.

While we are big fans of value for money and getting great deals online we would not like to use the phrase “cheap memory foam mattress” as it may give you the wrong idea. There are ways we can get a well-made, quality mattress at a bargain price if we do our research first and then buy online, where there are many retailers who offer great discounts on major brands, offering a certain stamp of quality that you may not get from a cheap mattress elsewhere.

The thing with memory foam is that there are vastly differing qualities between manufacturers and any given mattress will use a different quantity of the foam to another mattress, even in the same range. Doing your research here means checking out whether the manufacturer is a using a Tempur-pedic grade of foam that envelops the body and regulates temperature, because it has been composed with this in mind, or whether it is a cheaper foam that is being marketed as “memory foam” because of the buzz surrounding it. These are the two extremes, perhaps, and there is a wide space for perfectly good memory foam mattresses in between, but being aware of the potential differences beforehand will alert you to possible problems you can recognize when searching.

Many times now, memory foam will be blended with latex or other foams, or even sit in the upper layers of an innerspring mattress. So it is not just about the quality of the foam, but about where the foam is positioned in the mattress and in what amounts it is used.

Making sure you check the manufacturer carefully is a good start – how long have they been in business? Are they known for memory foam or innerspring mattresses? Do they have a name for quality workmanship? Is there specific product and material detail on their web site?

Even if you opt for one of the leading manufactures’ cheapest memory foam mattress you may end up better off than going with a top-range model from a manufacturer you are not sure about. You will usually receive a 10-year limited warranty with the top manufacturers, maybe longer, and shopping online at a reputable retailer can land you a bargain that is delivered to your door within a week.

The birth of the mattress topper was related to the mattress pad or the mattress cover but it has taken on a life of its own with the use of materials like memory foam and latex in them.

Originally the mattress toppers were sold largely to protect the mattress from stains, damage, wear and tear and anything else that could affect the longevity of a mattress or render the warranty invalid (a stained mattress will not be replaced by any manufacturer.) Still nowadays many people use a simple mattress pad that will top the mattress, made of cotton for breathe-ability and either tied to the corners, elasticized at the edges to fit over the mattress or zipped to completely contain the mattress. They may also serve a secondary function as protection to the sleeper from allergies brought on by dust-mites or other potential allergens.

However mattress toppers have taken on much more the look and feel of the pillow-top finishes of plush mattress sets, these days. Of course they will still serve the protective function but sometimes they are made quite thick nowadays – 3 or 4 inches – because as well as protecting they offer great comfort benefits to an overly firm mattress. They are able to add an extra comfort layer to an old mattress, rejuvenating it.

Of course if the old mattress in question is sagging, moth-eaten and worn out then a mattress topper won’t help much, no matter how thick it is. But providing the mattress has retained its shape well then well-made cheap mattress toppers are good options, as they can be a great way of getting extra comfort without having to go to the expense of replacing the mattress completely.

Those toppers that use memory foam and latex are probably the most popular nowadays and can be bought in most standard bedding centers as well as online. A 3 or 4 inch mattress topper in queen size, made from good quality memory foam, will probably cost between $150 and $300 online, so it is a significant saving over having to buy a whole new mattress. Do not skimp on price though and go with an established manufacturer – there are plenty of toppers from companies like Serta that will use a decent memory foam – as there are cheaper brands available that may use less memory foam of a poorer quality or density than is needed to provide good comfort levels.

Some of the best mattress topper sets are so comfortable they are used almost like a futon mattress, especially in Asia. They will be rolled out on the floor and can act as a mattress!

Mattress toppers serve a couple of functions –both protective and comfort-based – but as they have been developed they have become thicker and more luxurious so that the comfort factor outweighs the protective factor for most people. This is no more in evidence than with the latex mattress topper.

Originally mattress covers, pads and toppers were virtually interchangeable as a protective layer to keep the mattress stain-free and in good condition so that the warranty wasn’t invalidated; sometimes they were also used to keep the sleeper protected from allergies and dust-mites.

As time has gone on the mattress topper has been made with more and more luxurious foams, made into 3 or 4 inch pads that really add a huge amount of comfort to the top of a mattress. Nowadays you will see many memory foam and latex mattress toppers being marketed by the same established companies that make the mattresses and they have become a big business in their own right. They will resemble the plush pillow-tops that quality luxurious mattresses often feature.

In Asia some people now use mattress toppers as a type of futon mattress, rolled out on the floor and ready to go! In the US they can be used on a new mattress or on an old one that is a bit too firm for the owner’s liking but has still retained a decent shape. They will not be able to revive a dilapidated sagging mattress, but a 4-inch latex foam mattress topper will add a natural, super-soft, cushioning layer to the top of a firm, supportive mattress. Some people with bad backs might use a topper to soften up the surface of an orthopedic mattress and make it less firm.

Latex foam toppers may use the natural Dunlop-style latex or the Talalay latex which will usually be a mixture of natural and artificial latex. Both are very breathe-able and provide great cushioning for pressure points on the body, but the Talalay latex has a more open cell structure that makes it slightly less dense and softer than the Dunlop style latex.

Latex mattresses can cost thousands of dollars, which is out of most people’s budgets. Quality latex mattress toppers are available for $300-$400 and are far more widely accessible, so that more people can experience a little layer of luxury without it costing the earth!

Mattresses are such an important item for our home, which we expect to last many years and from which we demand a comfort level to match our needs. With people tightening their belts in these times of economic austerity around the world, there are some smart choices we can make to lower our outlays without sacrificing comfort. Increasingly we are seeing memory foam replacing the old coil-springs as the leading material in our main bedding supplies. We show you here how to scan some memory foam mattress topper reviews to make an informed decision that can save you money.

What is Memory Foam?

Memory foam is a polyurethane-based material that, when combined with other chemicals during the manufacturing process, creates a sleeping surface that shapes very well to body shape and offers a level of support that surpasses most other materials used for the purpose. It was developed initially in the 1970’s as a protection for astronauts in outer space, who have to endure extremely high forces. It was necessary to use a highly pressure-absorbent material that acted with a strong cushioning affect on the astronauts’ bodies.

The modern mattress memory foam is not exactly the same as this but is closely related. It was a Scandinavian manufacturer that developed it for the bedding market and over the years, production costs have come down, now making it a viable alternative to consider for many people wanting to buy a new mattress or a topper for their existing one. Most of the big name manufacturers will include memory foam mattress toppers in their ranges, alongside the standard other options.

The Enduring Qualities of Memory Foam

Memory foam is usually rated using the ILD system. This stands for Indentation Load Deflection. The very fact that there is a rating system tells us to expect different qualities. It is not a uniform, one-size-fits-all type of material. You will see from a glance at some reviews and customer comments that experiences vary accordingly.

The general rule is that the firmer mattresses and toppers will have a higher ILD rating; softer ones will have a lower rating. Normally this would be quoted as a range rather than a single value.

Before choosing it’s important to set your expectations as to what you are really looking for from your mattress topper. You may only make your final decision when you lie down on it, in the store, but beforehand you may be able to decide on an ILD range that will best suit your expectations of comfort and support.

In mattress sets often the memory foam is used only in the topper, so if you are buying a topper separately to place on an existing mattress then the same rules apply. Check the ILD.

Usually the quality memory foam surfaces are designed to “breathe” to avoid overheating during the night. The material creates a different environment than a hollower, coil-spring mattress, and there are issues with air flow to be addressed, but generally there are not many complaints from people about their purchase getting too hot.

The main negative comments about memory foam usually result from the price premium that people have to pay for it and the powerful smells that are associated with them when they are first bought. If you have a spare room it is a good idea to air the topper for a few days at least before transferring it to your own bedroom. This will mean that most of the odors will have dispersed by the time you come to use it.

Benefits of Using a Topper

The main benefit of using a topper is the price advantage. A good quality memory foam mattress can cost thousands of dollars; good toppers are available for a fraction of that price. If you are placing them on a good, sturdy, existing mattress they can do a great job in enhancing your rest.

One word of warning: placing a topper on a badly sagging mattress will not cure the sag. They cannot work wonders.

Size and Thickness Considerations

If you have decided that this is the way to go, then you will be looking at sizes and thicknesses. Toppers are made in all the relevant sizes you would expect from a mattress ie. from King Size memory mattress topper down to a Single size topper.

It is the thickness of the topper that will ultimately decide the comfort level. The 4 inch memory foam mattress topper is one of the most popular thicknesses as it generally provides adequate cushioning and support for the body. The 3 inch memory foam mattress topper may also be enough for some people but anything less than this is probably not advisable.

Caring for Your Mattress Topper

The best way to extend the life and shape of your topper is to turn it 180 degrees every now and again, allowing for the body weight to be spread over the full length of the topper over time. Unlike other materials used for mattresses, memory foam does not need to be flipped to maintain its quality.

You should find that, unlike coil mattresses, your memory foam is not a breeding ground for dust mites, as it is a denser set up entirely. So if you are prone to allergies, such as asthma, then a memory foam mattress topper is worth considering. Many will have already been treated by the time you buy them, to lower risk of allergies and the like.

To clean your mattress topper, we recommend the application of baking soda for around half an hour. Then vacuum clean the mattress to remove the baking soda and other unwanted material. Avoid using water too heavily on the foam; any stains can usually be removed with a little warm water and then blotted with a towel. You can always assist drying by using a hairdryer.

Recommended Approach to Buying a Mattress Topper

There are a lot of considerations to make before buying any mattress or topper, so it is useful to have some guidance here.

If you have a preferred manufacturer already then it becomes slightly easier. You can begin by visiting their web site, checking specifications of the toppers they produce and gathering useful buying tips in general.

If you’re not sure about the brand then mattress topper reviews will point you in the right general direction. They may have some empirical analysis of the toppers as well as comments from customers who have already bought products. These comments may or may not be from real customers. Marketers are clever and can pay people to post positive or negative comments based upon the brands they are pushing. So ensure that you have found a legitimate and respected site. Either way, you should find the experience leaves you with some of the right types of questions you need to be asking before you buy, so it’s a very useful first or second step.

You may have a few ideas of the toppers you are interested in at this point. Check prices at the online retailers to get an idea.

The golden rule when buying any mattress is that you need to test them out. This will entail a trip to your local bedding supply store, but at least you should have enough information by now to be able to ask the salesperson some probing questions. Then you can lie down on as many as you like, which will either narrow your choices down or give you some new ideas.

Once back home go online again and compare prices between exact models on your shortlist. Are they cheaper than at the bedding store? Sometimes significant savings can be made. Some brick and mortar bedding suppliers also have web sites where you can buy the items at discount. This way you could end up with a good quality, cheap memory foam mattress topper.

For example, you may have your heart set on a Simmons King size memory foam mattress topper that you tried in the store and found to be what you were looking for. Perhaps the exact same one is available online at 20% off the store price. Providing the online store provides a decent warranty and is a reputable site you can buy and get it delivered relatively easily, most times.

Summary

The best memory foam mattress topper is one that is well sourced, reasonably priced and meets your expectations. Be realistic about your expectations as a mattress set is specifically designed for comfort, support and robustness. That is why they are priced much higher than the toppers. Ensure that the mattress you are placing the topper onto is not a decrepit and sagging model that really needs to be thrown out, as it will not help in the long run. In this case may be better to buy a complete mattress set. But if you are satisfied with your existing mattress and are just looking for some extra comfort then the topper could be a cheap and worthwhile solution.

In the past the mattress topper was a pad or cover used predominantly to protect the mattress from perspiration and other stains, which would often render the warranty on a mattress void. It was necessary to use one either rested on top of the mattress, tied to the corners to keep it in place or as a wrap-around cover completely enveloping it. Nowadays, as you will see from mattress topper reviews online, these items are increasingly being made thicker and more comfortable as a completely separate item of bedding that can be used for sleeping on the floor or on top of an existing mattress.

In Asia mattress toppers are now used almost like an old-style Japanese futon mattress, which would be rolled out to provide a sleeping surface at night and then rolled up and stored away during the day, freeing up the space to be used for something else.

In the west they are more commonly now used as a comfort layer on top of an existing mattress. A word of warning here: a mattress topper can give a new lease of life to an old mattress that is a bit too firm for you but it will not be able to save a badly sagging, out of shape, moth-eaten and dust-mite ridden model that needs replacing. If you are looking to save a little money by buying a memory foam mattress topper, for example, to place on your old mattress , rather than going to the expensive of a whole new memory foam mattress, then fine – but be realistic about what your topper will be able to do.

If you are choosing memory foam for your topper, which seems to be the most popular choice these days, make sure there is enough memory foam used. Anything less than 2 inches of good quality foam won’t make too much difference to your comfort levels, so if you buy a 3-inch or 4-inch memory foam mattress topper then check the exact composition to see if all that thickness is memory foam. Stick with the major manufacturers as no-name makers may not be using good quality foam at all….you are already saving money by not having to buy a full mattress so spending a little more on your topper to ensure good quality is wise.